Discovery exports the 2021 African Cup of Nations to Italy

(Ecofin Agency)-over the years, African football has gradually established itself as a quality content for fans around the world. This interest is mainly prompted by the fact that many African stars such as Mo Salah and Sadio Mané play in the major European championships.

Discovery Italia has just acquired the exclusive rights to the 33rd edition of the African Cup of Nations (can) 2021, which will take place from January 9 to February 6, 2022 in Cameroon. The band will broadcast all 52 matches of the competition exclusively on discovery +, its streaming service, in Italy. In addition, some key events, including the final, will be broadcast live on Eurosport.

"we are very pleased to host such a prestigious sporting event on discovery +, which further strengthens our premium sports offer, which represents a content of absolute value for our subscribers," said Alessandro Araimo, CEO of discovery Italia.

For Veron Mosengo-Omba, Secretary General of the CAF, the demand for the content of the African Cup of Nations by the partners in the first instance of African football justifies the "status and prestige" of the competition. "we are convinced that the Cameroonian edition will once again offer great entertainment to millions of football fans around the world," he said.

Discovery succeeds DAZN, a subscription OTT (over-the-top) video streaming service that took back the rights of can 2019, after the closure of Fox Sports channels in Italy. The latter had acquired the rights to the 2017 and 2019 editions of the competition under an agreement with the French agency Lagardère Sports (currently Sportfive).

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It should be noted that the holding of can 2021 and the allocation of its rights to broadcasters are a victory for the CAF, which was struggling to recover from the breach of a multi-year $1 billion contract with Lagardère Sports in 2019. Since that event, the supreme body of African football had not reallocated the rights of its main competitions. Streaming on the Internet had become the main mode of viewing games.

Recently, the CAF stated that it had reached an agreement with the African Union of broadcasters (UAR) to manage the broadcast rights of the can 2021 on the continent.

Isaac K. Kassouwi

Read also: 3 / 11 / 2021-Africa: CAF launches call for tenders to end television blackout of major competitions