By Stuart Thomson

African football organisation CAF has struck a deal with the African Union of Broadcasters (AUB) to distribute coverage of next year’s Africa Cup of Nations to AUB affiliate broadcasters across the continent, with marketing and sales support from Afrosport.

The AUB is a collection of free-to-air national broadcasters, whose affiliates cover 120 major cities and numerous rural communities, reaching over 100 million TV homes.

Afrosport has provided support delivering events including the Olympics, the World Cup, the English premier League and the UEFA Champions League free to air across the continent.

“We are thrilled to deliver what will be Africa’s best ever televised AFCON event. In recent times, it has been well publicised that events have not been well served, due to uncertainty in the rights process leading to many broadcasters not signing up to the event until destabilising the commercial viability of the broadcast and hindering the viewer experience,” said CEO of the AUB, Gregoire Ndjaka.

“CAF has recognised the unique role that the AUB plays in Africa TV, and we are encouraged by the prospects for public service TV and sports coverage on the landscape. I am glad that to date more than 25 of our broadcast affiliates have reached agreement to televise AFCON 2021, with more expected to sign-up in the coming weeks. The AUB acknowledge and support the new CAF management for school football development and the Project of Super League which is a big innovation that will contribute efficiently to sustain the development of the football industry in the Africa Continent.”

Co-Founder and Executive Director of Afrosport, Andy Howes said: “Afrosport is excited for the opportunity to work with the AUB and its network of public service and private broadcasters to deliver the best collective sporting experiences to Africa’s viewers. Together we will seek to leverage a network of key media partnerships to unlock the true commercial potential of sport through the engagement of the continent’s 1.3 billion people and 800 million TV audience. For CAF our objective is simple: to deliver Africa’s biggest sporting spectacle through the biggest broadcast media platform on the continent, creating Africa’s biggest sporting conversation.”