AFCON 2027: CAF opens the battle for TV rights in Sub-Saharan Africa

With less than a year to go before the kick-off of AFCON 2027, CAF is already preparing the broadcasting of the competition. The Confederation of African Football has launched a tender for the media rights of AFCON 2027 in Sub-Saharan Africa, a new step in the commercialisation of its flagship tournament.

The competition will be jointly organised by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, from 19 June to 17 July 2027. Interested broadcasters and media companies have until 14 September 2026 at 5 p.m., Cairo time, to submit their bids.

Several languages involved

The tender covers both Free-to-Air (free television) and Pay-TV rights across the Sub-Saharan territory.

CAF plans broadcasts in English, Swahili, Portuguese, isiZulu, Wolof, Yoruba, as well as in other local languages.

One notable feature, however, concerns French: Pay-TV rights in French are not included in this tender for the 2027 edition.

The inclusion of Wolof among the languages concerned is in particular an important element for the Senegalese public and, more broadly, for French-speaking and multilingual audiences in West Africa.

AFCON, a media product in full growth

This new process comes as AFCON is experiencing a significant rise in its audience.

According to figures released by CAF, the 2025 edition held in Morocco recorded more than 3.2 billion television viewers and around 6 billion digital views.

These figures place AFCON in third position among the world's major national team football competitions, behind the World Cup and the European Championship.

The growth of digital platforms is therefore taking up an increasingly important place in the competition's broadcasting strategy, alongside traditional television audiences.

A market that goes beyond AFCON alone

CAF is not putting only AFCON 2027 on the market. The same process also concerns several other upcoming competitions:

• The 2027 U20 AFCON in Ghana
• The 2027 U17 AFCON in Morocco
• The 2026 Beach Soccer AFCON
• The 2026 Futsal AFCON in Morocco
• The U23 AFCON in Egypt

For the Confederation, the commercialisation of media rights is thus a central element in the development and visibility of its competitions.

With AFCON 2027, organised for the first time by three East African countries, CAF is already preparing a new major event for viewers and digital platforms across the continent. The battle for the broadcasting rights of AFCON 2027 is now open in Sub-Saharan Africa.