Weeks ahead of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Francophone public broadcasters are seeking to secure the rights to show more matches free-to-air. Their efforts highlight a familiar dilemma: how to balance tight budgets with massive public demand for major sports events.

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is set to begin on December 21 in Morocco with a match between Morocco and Comoros. Off the pitch, another battle is unfolding between Francophone African public broadcasters and New World TV, the company selected by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to distribute broadcast rights. Public channels have secured access to only 32 of the 52 matches, a number they consider insufficient. Their demand for more free-to-air games has reignited debate over how broadcasting rights are allocated.

Origin of the Dispute

Broadcast-rights management has evolved in recent editions. In 2019, for example, the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) was responsible for selling TV rights in sub-Saharan Africa. In November 2023, New World TV secured both free-to-air and pay-TV rights for all CAF competitions for a three-year period, covering the 2023 AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire and the 2025 edition in Morocco. Since then, the Lomé-based private broadcaster, not CAF, has been selling rights across 46 sub-Saharan countries through sub-licensing agreements.

New World TV’s lawyer, Louis Biyao, said on France 24 that CAF authorized only 28 free-to-air matches for the 2023 AFCON. He said the operator negotiated an increase to 32 for 2025. But a group of French-speaking public broadcasters from Senegal, Cameroon, Gabon and Côte d’Ivoire is demanding access to all 52 matches. They argue that the model runs counter to the principle of universal access and say a competition partly funded by governments should be entirely available to the public.

Financial Debate and Timing

The broadcasters, meeting in Lomé on November 22, also criticized what they see as a new approach to selling broadcast rights. These statements come just weeks before kickoff, even though negotiations with New World TV have been under way for several months.

In July 2025, for example, Ivorian channel NCI announced a deal with New World TV to acquire free-to-air rights for the entire Ivorian territory on all platforms. Canal+, which also lost exclusivity, had to sign its own agreement with the Togolese operator to include all matches in its pay-TV packages.

These announcements show that discussions began long ago and that broadcasters were already aware of the sub-licensing terms, including how many matches would be available free-to-air. Their late objections raise questions, especially as the free-to-air quota is determined by parameters set by CAF in the master rights contract and cannot be changed unilaterally by New World TV.

Will the Rules Evolve?

The dispute comes in a tight budget environment, with public broadcasters facing limited resources that constrain their ability to buy premium content. The standoff highlights a recurring dilemma for public television networks, which, as New World TV’s lawyer noted, must pay more to obtain more matches. For their part, the broadcasters argue that applying a model inspired by FIFA or UEFA is financially unfair in markets with very different funding structures.

New World TV says it negotiated an increase in the number of free-to-air matches with CAF and insists it is defending the interests of free broadcasters within an economic framework it does not fully control.

It remains to be seen whether CAF will revise the free-to-air quota in future contracts, or whether public broadcasters can strengthen their financial capacity to acquire more content. With kickoff approaching and TV coverage posing social and political stakes in many countries, a favorable outcome for Francophone broadcasters before the 2025 edition appears unlikely.