Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus Afrique has agreed a sublicensing deal with telco Econet for rights to North American basketball league the NBA.
The agreement will take in the ongoing 2016-17 NBA season, along with the 2017-18 and 2018-19 campaigns. Canal Plus will offer NBA action in Francophone African markets, as well as Madagascar and Mauritius.
Canal Plus will broadcast at least three regular-season games per week, along with the NBA All Star event, the best games from the playoffs and the NBA Finals in their entirety. Canal Plus will also carry the league’s 24/7 dedicated channel, NBA TV.
In April, Econet agreed a multi-year deal to become the new broadcast partner of the NBA in sub-Saharan Africa. The new deal was the largest-ever for the league in Africa and includes content across Econet Media’s television, internet and mobile assets, including the Kwesé pay-television platforms and its sports offering, Kwesé Sports.
The deal began with the 2016-17 NBA season, as Econet replaced pay-television broadcaster SuperSport as the official NBA broadcaster in sub-Saharan Africa.