SMA Weekly | 9 November 2026. Exclusivity is now being sold in pieces.

The week in one paragraph

Four things happened this week that look unrelated and are not. CAF put two seasons of club competition rights out to tender with about a week to bid, and rewrote its AFCON tender to cover 2028, 2031 and 2033 with less than a fortnight left. Canal+ cut DStv's top tier by up to 42% in Kenya, Uganda and Ghana and moved the Premier League into a mid-priced package; two days later MultiChoice launched a 24-hour Kiswahili sports channel. And Cameroon told every pay-TV platform to carry the public broadcaster free and in the clear from January. SMA's view: the single, exclusive, territory-wide sports right is breaking into parts, by tier, by language, by edition and by regulation. Rights holders who negotiate only the headline fee will give the other parts away for nothing.

The Big Idea: exclusivity is now sold in pieces, so price the pieces

For a long time an African sports rights deal meant one thing: a fee for exclusive coverage of a territory. This week showed how far that model has fractured. CAF's club competitions tender separates English, local-language and French pay-TV rights from free-to-air rights in all languages (CAF, 2 November 2026). Its amended AFCON tender sells three editions on an uneven calendar, leaving 2029 and 2030 as qualifiers-only inventory (CAF via allAfrica, 3 November 2026). DStv's repackaging means the tier a match sits on now shapes its audience as much as the platform does (Broadcast Media Africa, 2 November 2026). SuperSport Swahili turns a commentary language into a channel. And Cameroon's must-carry protocol means any match CRTV airs will reach every pay-TV decoder in the country, lapsed subscriptions included (Broadcast Media Africa, 6 November 2026).

Each of these takes something that used to come bundled inside "exclusive rights" and makes it separately valuable, or separately at risk. A rights holder that does not name the pieces in the contract hands them to the buyer free: language rights thrown in with English, tier placement left to the platform, calendar and regulatory risk carried by whichever side forgot to write the clause.

What SMA would do: before the next renewal or tender response, list the pieces (language, tier or package, platform and format including vertical and social, edition or season, and carriage regime) and put a price, a guarantee or a clause against each. Leagues and federations should reserve local-language rights rather than bundle them. Buyers should insist on per-edition pricing and a regulatory-change clause. Sponsors should ask which tier, which language and which carriage rules their promised reach depends on. The headline fee is now the least informative number in the deal.

The week's stories

Media rights

CAF's club rights: two seasons, one week to bid. CAF is selling sub-Saharan rights to the Champions League, Confederation Cup, Super Cup and Women's Champions League for 2026-27 and 2027-28, with bids due on 11 November and the group stage starting on 27 November. Two seasons justify investment in local-language shows; a one-week window rewards whoever can broadcast tomorrow. SMA analysis; Broadcast Media Africa, 6 November 2026

AFCON's rights become a different product. CAF's 2 November amendment replaced 2028, 2032 and 2036 with 2028, 2031 and 2033, finals and qualifiers, with bids closing on 16 November and no hosts named. Bidders should price each edition separately and write calendar changes into the contract. SMA analysis; CAF via allAfrica, 3 November 2026

Distribution

SuperSport Swahili makes language a rights asset. MultiChoice launched a 24-hour Kiswahili sports channel across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda on 5 November, on DStv and GOtv. A permanent local-language channel needs local content, which strengthens the hand of East African leagues that can supply reliable feeds. SMA analysis; HapaKenya, 5 November 2026

Cameroon's must-carry rule dilutes pay-TV exclusivity. Canal+, StarTimes and three other distributors signed a protocol on 4 November to carry CRTV free, even to lapsed subscribers, within two months. After Burkina Faso's fines on Canal+, that is two francophone markets in a year; rights contracts need a regulatory-change clause. SMA analysis; Broadcast Media Africa, 6 November 2026

Production

Dakar 2026 runs Olympic master control from the cloud, and shoots on phones. OBS moved master control from the International Broadcast Centre in Senegal to a remote operation in Madrid, while Samsung phones added handheld and vertical angles in skateboarding and taekwondo. Hybrid and remote production lowers cost for African rights holders, but contracts should specify who may film, who owns the clips and which roles stay local. SMA analysis; Broadcast Media Africa, 5 November 2026

Sponsorship

Ghana's lost Guinness deal is a regulatory lesson. GFA President Kurt Okraku told Parliament on 4 November that FDA rules killed a Guinness deal he put at "over $5 million a year". Repeal is slow; rights holders selling to alcohol and betting brands should design packages a regulator can approve and make consent a contract condition with a fallback. SMA analysis; Business of Sports Africa, 5 November 2026

Geopolitics reaches the BAL. The NBA confirmed that US sanctions on Rwanda's army led to army-funded club APR's exclusion from the Basketball Africa League, while Rwanda remains a league partner and hosts the finals in Kigali. State-backed hosting and sponsorship now carry political risk that partners should price and plan for. Eurohoops, 4 November 2026

The number

33%: the share of Dakar 2026's 539 host broadcast staff working remotely from Madrid rather than in Senegal. Remote production cuts cost, but African rights holders should write local crew and skills commitments into host broadcast contracts before AFCON 2027. Broadcast Media Africa, 5 November 2026

Watch list

  • 11 November, 17:00 Cairo: CAF club competitions rights tender closes; watch for broadcaster announcements before the 27 November group stage.
  • 13 November: Dakar 2026 closes; look for IOC and OBS audience and digital figures for African markets.
  • 16 November, 17:00 Cairo: bids due for AFCON 2028, 2031 and 2033 commercial rights.
  • Early January 2027: Cameroon's must-carry deadline. Meanwhile FIFA's 2030 host-city visits continue amid Spanish opposition threats over the final venue (Reuters via The Star, 7 November 2026).

Pricing a renewal, a tender response or a sponsorship package? Talk to SMA at sportsmediaafrica.com/contact.