Benjamine Omoike l Sunday, April 02, 2017
OSHODI, Lagos, Nigeria – Africa’s leading pay TV operator, StarTimes, has acquired media rights to the 2018 FIFA World Cup as FIFA officially granted media rights to all 2017-2018 FIFA events in Sub-Saharan Africa.
StarTimes has been awarded pay-TV transmission rights for exploitation in all 42 territories of sub-Saharan Africa except South Africa with regard to the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Besides the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, StarTimes also gets the pay-TV transmission rights in sub-Saharan Africa for all the other 2017-2018 FIFA events (except the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017 in South Africa).
“We are so glad to offer the best football matches to our subscribers in Africa with having secured the broadcasting rights to the 2018 FIFA World Cup and all the other 2017-2018 FIFA events,” said Michael Dearham, StarTimes Vice-President and Managing Director of Media Division.
Dearham said: “Consistent with StarTimes’ mission and values, our search for best sport contents is always at the heart of our commitment to service excellence. In this regards, our partnership with FIFA will definitely help to serve up a football feast to African football fans in the coming days.”
“We are delighted to work with our appointed broadcast partners in the sub-Saharan region to allow millions of fans to enjoy each of FIFA’s various events, across a multitude of platforms,” said FIFA’s Chief Commercial Officer Philippe Le Floc’h.
The 42 territories are: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo DR, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The 2017-2018 FIFA events comprise: FIFA U-20 World Cup 2017; FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017; FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2017; FIFA Confederations Cup 2017; FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup 2018; FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2018; 2018 FIFA World Cup
StarTimes is the leading digital-TV operator in Africa, serving nearly 10 million subscribers and covering 90 per cent of the continent’s population with a massive distribution network.
