The upcoming African Cup of Nations (AFCON) will feature 52 games, all of which will be televised live by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
AfroSports TV, a cross-continental Free-To-Air (FTA) sports channel, and the federal government-owned television station, announced their memorandum of understanding signing in a post on X on Wednesday.
“NTA and Afro Sports TV sign a memorandum of understanding for 52 African Cup of Nations games to be broadcast in Cote d’Ivoire,” the post stated.
The NTA announcement comes after a few weeks of uncertainty following the disclosure by MultiChoice, the parent company of DStv and GOtv, that it had not been able to secure the broadcasting rights for the AFCON that was scheduled to take place in Ivory Coast.
READ ALSO: According To Multichoice, SuperSport Won’t Broadcast AFCON 2023
The dominant broadcaster said that the competition scheduled to start on January 13 would not air on its SuperSport channel. However, it was soon made public that Multichoice had lost out to Togolese audio-visual business New World TV for the broadcasting rights.
For two years, from 2023 to 2025, New World TV has been granted the exclusive right to telecast all 13 of CAF’s competitions to viewers in sub-Saharan Africa. This includes the upcoming AFCON and the tournament’s next edition.
New World TV’s cross-continental reach was questioned because it mostly reaches French-speaking African nations. However, StarTimes declared that it has a sublicensing agreement with New World and will broadcast the competition on its sports channels.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria are in Group A with Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau for the 34th edition of the African Cup of Nations, which takes place in Ivory Coast from January 13 to February 11.
On January 14, Nigeria’s first matchup is against Equatorial Guinea. Four days later, they play Ivory Coast, and the final group stage matchup is between Guinea and Bissau.
The Eagles just got back from a week-long training camp in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), where they defeated a local team named Al Gharaib 12-0 and then fell to Guinea 2-0 the next day.
