Many Ligue 1 players hail from sub-Saharan Africa including Marseille’s Geoffrey Kondogbia. (Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)

Vivendi-owned France-based international broadcast giant Canal Plus has extended its rights in Sub-Saharan Africa to cover French soccer’s top-tier League 1 through the end of the 2028-29 season.

On the eve of the 2024-25 campaign, which begins on August 16, Canal Plus has renewed the rights for the next five seasons, preventing a blackout in one of the league’s strongest regional markets.

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The broadcaster, through its Canal Plus Afrique arm, has shown Ligue 1 in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa since the beginning of the 2018-19 season, after it purchased the rights for the cycle through the 2023-24 season for around €80 million ($95.4 million) per year.

The broadcaster operates in over 25 African countries both directly and through a network of wholly and partially-owned subsidiaries, all of which accounts for over 8.1 million subscribers on the continent as of the end of 2023. 

Ligue 1 boasts the largest roster of African national team players in Europe’s top leagues, while even more represent other countries such as France but have African heritage. 

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At the biennial Africa Cup of Nations continental competition, as many as 52 players from across Ligue 1’s 18 teams were called up to compete, including stars such as DR Congo captain Chancel Mbemba of Marseille and Morocco defender Achraf Hakimi of Paris Saint-Germain.

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The rights renewal for Ligue 1 in Africa comes despite Canal Plus recusing itself from the bidding process for Ligue 1 rights in France for the 2024-29 period due to a long-running feud with French soccer governing body the LFP.

Canal Plus informed the LFP that it would not be bidding back in September 2023 after a protracted court battle over the cost of it’s rights for the 2021-24 period as well as the terms of its sublicensing deal with pay-TV rival BeIN Sports.

The 2024-25 season will mark the first time since 1984 that Canal Plus will not broadcast its own coverage.

That said, Canal Plus subscribers will still have access to all Ligue 1 games as a result of a pair of deals struck this week with new domestic rightsholders BeIN and DAZN for the distribution of their respective services.