French language and other rights have been agreed
La Liga has agreed deals with SuperSport and StarTimes for the rights to show the league in sub-Saharan Africa.
SuperSport has renewed its agreement with the Spanish top flight, extending with a multi-year deal in all languages except Arabic and French. As a part of this, La Liga’s 24/7 English language channel LaLigaTV will be made available to DStv subscribers.
Gideon Khobane, chief executive of SuperSport, said: “We’re delighted to have finalised a new deal as football is one of our popular broadcast pillars.”
Melcior Soler, director of the LaLiga audiovisual department, added: “SuperSport has been a strong partner for LaLiga in Africa for many years and our fanbase across the continent has grown significantly during this time. We look forward to further years of success together.”
Meanwhile, digital TV operator StarTimes has signed up to the French language rights until 2024 in the same region, covering 47 territories. It will begin showing matches for the 2020-21 season, with games going out live and in HD on the StarTimes Sport channels in French as well as the StarTimes ON streaming application.
Kristen Miao, StarTimes sport director, said of the agreement: “The acquiring of LaLiga Santander shows our commitment to continuously enrich our bouquets and to provide our subscribers with premium sport content.”
Soler added: “This agreement provides an exciting new way for French speaking fans across sub-Saharan Africa to get closer to our competition. StarTimes has a strong presence in the region and a proven expertise in sports in general and football in particular, which will help us all to reach as wide an audience as possible.”