The Iris Sport Media (ISM) agency, a rights distributor for the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup matches across Sub-Saharan Africa, has successfully secured rights deals with 30 broadcasters in the region. This comes just ahead of the tournament's opening match.
ISM announced that it had finalized its portfolio of broadcasters set to provide coverage in the region. These include pay-TV heavyweights SuperSport and StarTimes for English-speaking pan-African territories and New World TV for French-speaking pan-African territories.
East African territories will enjoy coverage from Azam TV in both English and Swahili languages. Meanwhile, Zap has acquired broadcasting rights for Angola and Mozambique in Portuguese.
Free-to-air coverage across 25 countries
Free-to-air (FTA) coverage has been secured across 25 countries so far. Some notable broadcasters include:
- SportyTV: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa
- NCCI: Cote d’Ivoire
- RTS: Senegal
- New World TV: Togo
- ORTM: Mali
- RTG: Guinea
ISM obtained these distribution rights from global rights holder DAZN back in February. The deal covers FTA as well as pay-TV rights for the tournament’s inaugural edition scheduled to be held from June 14 to July 13.
DAZN will also provide FTA coverage of the competition globally including across Africa. To maximize distribution and exposure, ISM partnered with Marketing & Media Solutions and PC Plus Group firms - experienced operators known for distributing FTA rights to African qualifiers for FIFA's future events such as the FIFA 2026 World Cup. In Egypt however, MBC Group struck a sub-licensing deal directly with DAZN. DAZN had acquired the CWC rights last December for around $1 billion and has been actively securing regional and national sublicensing deals to enhance the event’s distribution.
ISM's role in Central America
ISM has also brokered several sub-licensing deals in Central America, particularly with broadcasters in Costa Rica (Teletica), El Salvador (Canal 4 TCS), Guatemala (TV Azteca), Honduras (Televicentro), Nicaragua (Canal 13), and Panama (Next TV).
In addition, Iris has acted as a sales agent for African 2026 World Cup qualifiers for broadcasters across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
Meanwhile, Antenna TV, a Greek commercial broadcaster, has secured rights to broadcast all 63 games of the CWC across its channels in Greece. The deal includes localized commentary for all matches along with highlights and shoulder content. As part of this agreement, up to 15 matches will be nationally broadcast on Antenna’s network ANT1 and antenna.gr OTT service during the tournament’s inaugural edition.
