The German top-tier soccer league, Bundesliga, has announced a series of broadcast deals that will extend its reach across sub-Saharan Africa. The agreements include new partnerships and extensions with existing partners.

Bundesliga International, the overseas arm of the league, has secured three-year extensions with current English-language partners StarTimes and AzamTV. These broadcasters will retain rights in English as well as a variety of local languages.

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StarTimes has been a partner for over ten years while AzamTV joined the fold in 2020. Through this renewed agreement, AzamTV will provide Bundesliga matches coverage across Tanzania, Botswana, Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda Uganda Zambia and Zimbabwe.

New Pay-TV partner in ZAP

In Angola and Mozambique pay-TV's ZAP is joining as a new partner providing access to Bundesliga matches in Portuguese. This partnership further expands the league's footprint on the continent.

Each of these broadcast trio - StarTimes AzamTV and ZAP - have also acquired rights to air the German Supercup annual game scheduled for August 17 this year of Bayer Leverkusen vs Stuttgart. The post-season relegation playoffs are also included in their overall rights package. In South Africa Bundesliga International extended its deal for one key fixture per match day with public-service broadcaster SABC for another two seasons continuing an agreement that began in 2020.

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Peer Naubert, chief marketing officer at Bundesliga International, said:

“The Bundesliga has a long and storied history in Africa: one of the early movers when it came to broadcasting European football throughout the continent …
“We have gone from strength to strength and, as a result of our comprehensive distribution and marketing strategy, the Bundesliga is the fastest growing European top league in Africa, and that interest continues to grow.”

FTA rights allocated to MBS agency

Free-to-air (FTA) rights to one fixture per match day across all sub-Saharan Africa have been allocated to Media Business Solutions (MBS) agency which plans to sublicense them throughout that part of the continent. MBS will also collaborate with Bundesliga International to find sponsors for these broadcasts.

These new deals complement the Bundesliga's existing French-language agreements in sub-Saharan Africa with Canal Plus and New World Television. These joint deals came into effect before the start of 2023-24 and run through 2025-26 (New World TV) and 2027-28 (Canal Plus). The league boasts several players from sub-Saharan Africa including Odilon Kossounou and Sebastian Haller from Ivory Coast, Serhou Guirassy from Guinea, and Victor Boniface from Nigeria.

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In recent developments, the Bundesliga announced a return to Poland via Eleven Sports through a four-year deal beginning in 2025-26. In May, Infront agency struck a four-year media rights tie-up with Bundesliga International for sales across ten European markets excluding Poland. The upcoming 2024-25 season is set to kick off on August 23 with Bayer Leverkusen vs Mönchengladbach.

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