China's StarTimes pay-TV operator in Africa has acquired the broadcasting rights to the UEFA National Team Football between 2019 and 2022 for sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa where it operates under the StarSat brand, including qualifiers to, and the Euro 2020.
StarTimes acquired the Euro 2020 which will be played from 12 June to 12 July 2020, as well as qualifiers to Euro 2020, the Nations League 2020/21 and European qualifiers to the Fifa World Cup 2022.
All national friendlies are also part of the contract. StarTimes will broadcast European Qualifiers on its sports channels, as well as on its StarTimes ON streaming app, live and in HD in all sub-Saharan Africa.
StarTimes is sharing these rights with MultiChoice's SuperSport and Canal+.
"StarTimes is proud to announce the acquisition of UEFA National Team Football rights. Euro 2020 will be the number 1 football competition next year; it will feature some of the best teams in the world, including both finalists of last World Cup, France and Croatia," says Shi Maochu, StarTimes sport director.
"To make sure fans get fully ready, we'll broadcast all European qualifiers matches starting from the coming match day on 5 September."
"We always seek to bring the best sport content to our subscribers like Copa America we broadcast last month or ICC which is airing at the moment. By acquiring all UEFA national team football events, we make sure our subscribers can enjoy the best matches up to next FIFA World Cup," said Shi Maochu.
Apart from national teams, StarTimes is airing numerous club football competitions such as UEFA Europa League, French Ligue 1, Bundesliga and Coppa Italia.
StarTimes is also the FIBA World Cup China 2019 exclusive broadcaster in Sub-Saharan Africa.
"We have had very positive feedback from sport fans when we announced that we acquired exclusive FIBA World Cup broadcasting rights and African fans are really excited to see their teams compete against the world’s best in China. This will be a great tournament," said Shi Maochu.
StarTimes that competes with MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service and SuperSport says the rights for EUFA/Europa are not available for South Africa, and that most of its content are exclusive to StarTimes in English and Portuguese areas.
Ligue 1 is exclusive to StarTimes (ENG and Portuguese), Europa League is exclusive (ENG and Portuguese), Bundesliga is exclusive (ENG, Portuguese, French), UEFA National Team (non-exclusive), FIBA World Cup is exclusive (ENG and Portuguese) and Coppa Italia is exclusive.
