Kwese Free Sports enters bidding ‘war’ for Chan tournament
Kwese Free Sports have expressed their intentions to rival SuperSport for the exclusive broadcast rights to air the 2018 Africa Nations Championship (Chan).
In a move that further highlights Kwese’s intent to control Africa’s prime sporting content, sources have revealed that the South African based Free to Air channel are keen to snap up the broadcast rights for Africa’s second biggest football tournament.
Chan, which is entering its fifth edition, is a bi-annual two week football competition comprising only local based footballers.
Up until now, the tournament has been exclusively aired on Pay-TV channel SuperSport.
Owned by London based Zimbabwean businessman Strive Masiyiwa, Kwese Free Sports have thus far launched a successful entry into the African market as a Free to Air entity.
SPORTS EVENTS
Kwese, which boasts a stable presence in Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and Nigeria, has also acquired rights to some high profile sports events such as the English Premier League, NBA basketball, and next year’s Fifa World Cup in Russia.
The channel has also added to their stable seasoned journalists namely Chiko Lawi, Herbert Mwachiro and Claudia Ekai (Kenya), Colin Udoh (Nigeria) alongside dozens of specialised production workforce.
Last week, Kwese Free Sports also aired the annual East Africa Netball Club Championship in Nairobi, thus further signifying their intent of exploring the Kenyan market.
This development comes amid uncertainty in the Kenyan market, in the wake of the abrupt withdrawal of SuperSport as the Kenyan Premier League’s broadcast rights holder.
