The year 2025 consolidates several trends already mentioned in 2024, but is also characterized by the desire of private actors, whether French or African, public or private, to participate in the development of the African communications and media market.
Across the continent, players in the audiovisual, information, digital, and communications sectors are organizing themselves to take advantage of this new dynamic, to launch new offerings, and to position themselves in a market that continues to take shape and develop despite geopolitical uncertainties.
THE 8 HIGHLIGHTS OF 2025
- The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations: a source of tension and passion
The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, hosted by Morocco and played since mid-December, has once again confirmed the central role of soccer as a driver of audience ratings, social cohesion, and popular fervor on the African continent.
The 2025 edition is marked by non-exclusivity and therefore unprecedented competition.
In Cameroon, for example, CRTV, CANAL2, and Equinoxe TV, the three most-watched channels in the country, are broadcasting the competition. The same is true in Ivory Coast, where RTI and NCI are co-broadcasting the matches.
But CAN 2025 is also central to the CANAL+ group's strategy of promoting its pay-TV offerings. CANAL+ has therefore launched a dedicated event channel, CANAL+ CAN, for the occasion.
In this context of heightened competition, anything that enriches the broadcast of matches (pre- and post-match coverage, prestigious consultants, magazines, reports, summaries, etc.) can make a difference, and channels with the means to do so have also invested in this editorial enrichment.
For public channels, which are mostly supported by the state, the CAN is practically an obligation. The most common argument is that the population would not understand if all the matches were not broadcast on the state channel.
This is why, with just a few weeks to go before kick-off, the major public broadcasters have taken their case to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), complaining about partial access to the competition: the package offered by NewWorld TV, which markets the free rights on behalf of CAF, only included the 33 best matches out of the 52 in the competition for the so-called free-to-air channels.
The CAF never officially responded to the signatories, but in this dramatic saga, Côte d'Ivoire stands out as an exception: thanks to direct support from the government, RTI and NCI reached an agreement with the CAF, New World TV, and CANAL+ just hours before the opening match, allowing them to broadcast the entire competition.
- CANAL+'s acquisition of MultiChoice: the birth of a pan-African pay-TV champion
The other defining event of 2025 was undoubtedly the completion, on September 22, of CANAL+'s acquisition of MultiChoice for an estimated €2.5 billion, after nearly two years of complex proceedings.
This transaction marks a historic turning point for the African audiovisual industry. By combining the assets of CANAL+ Afrique and MultiChoice (DStv, Showmax, etc.), the new entity is positioned as the leading pan-African group capable of competing on a continental scale with major international streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and DAZN.
Contrary to popular belief, this new giant's main competitors are not free national channels, but global OTT platforms, which target the same urban, connected, and affluent segments.
For African creativity, the stakes are high. This partnership will enable greater investment, the pooling of editorial and technical expertise, and an enhanced capacity to produce fiction, series, and entertainment designed for African audiences and meeting international quality standards.
- TF1+: the offensive by France's leading free streaming service in French-speaking Africa
The year 2025 also saw TF1 make an aggressive entry into African markets with the mid-year launch of its TF1+ platform in 27 French-speaking African countries and the Maghreb region.
The stated ambition is clear: to make TF1+ a major player in premium free streaming in the French-speaking world, based on an advertising-funded model and a rich catalog of nearly 20,000 hours of programming.
Already well established in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, the TF1 Group is implementing a gradual, long-term deployment strategy in Africa, mindful of local realities: diverse regulatory frameworks, connectivity constraints, economic disparities, and geopolitical issues.
While success cannot be measured in the short term, TF1+ has structural advantages: brand strength, investment capacity, advertising expertise, and editorial flexibility, all of which are likely to enable it to establish a lasting presence in the African digital ecosystem.
- TV5 Monde: strategic repositioning and editorial modernization
Another key player in French-language broadcasting, TV5 Monde underwent a major transformation in 2025 under the leadership of its new president, Kim Younes.
This overhaul resulted in a new visual and audio identity, modernized sets for television news programs, a reorganization of the editorial team, and the launch of new formats. The goal was to rejuvenate the channel's image, strengthen its editorial clarity, and better meet the expectations of African and international audiences.
Among the flagship new programs is Les Nouveaux Boss, emblematic of a major trend observed in 2025.
- The explosion of talent shows and reality TV: a proven business model
In 2025, talent shows and reality TV formats have literally taken over the programming schedules: The Voice Africa, Africa's Got Talent, Nouvelle reine, The Bachelor, and many others.
This success is based on several economic and editorial drivers:
- Strong recurring audiences, attractive to advertisers,
- proven formats, often adapted from international licenses
- Promoting local talent, strengthening audience identification
- Digital interaction, with massive extension on social media
- Targeting young audiences, essential for the sustainability of channels
These programs combine the codes of fiction and sports: narration, suspense, emotion, competition, making them particularly successful products in changing advertising markets.
- News media: another year of tensions and sanctions
Conversely, 2025 was a particularly difficult year for international news media, both French-speaking and non-French-speaking.
As had already been the case in 2024, several television and radio stations were suspended or sanctioned, including:
- TV5 Monde, LCI, and TF1 in Mali
- France 24 and RFI in Togo for three months
- BBC in Niger
- Radio Omega in Burkina Faso
These decisions come amid a tense political climate, exacerbated by Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso's withdrawal from the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) in March 2025, and by the questioning of French as an official language.
For French-language media and the French-speaking world, these developments raise a major strategic question: the increased integration of local languages—through dubbing or subtitling—could become an essential condition for maintaining access to audiences and preserving their influence.
- Trade shows, forums, and awards ceremonies: accelerated structuring of the ecosystem
At the same time, 2025 saw a proliferation of trade shows, forums, and professional meetings, often supported by governments in a race for regional hegemony:
- SICA in Abidjan
- SIMA in Dakar
- SIMA Music in Cotonou
- African Broadcasting Forum in Dakar
These events have become genuine platforms for networking, influencing, and co-constructing media policies.
In addition, award ceremonies such as the African Cristal Festival, the Sotigui Awards, LFC Awards, 7even Awards, and L'Afrique fait son cinéma also attest to the growing maturity of the advertising sector and the film industry, and their desire for international recognition.
- 2026 in sight: AI as a catalyst for transformation
The outlook for 2026 confirms a fundamental trend: artificial intelligence will establish itself as a key driver of transformation in the communications and media industries.
Already present in audiovisual production, advertising creation, journalism, and translation, its use is rapidly accelerating. A survey conducted with Adweknow reveals that 80% of advertising professionals familiar with AI are already using it.
With the rapid evolution of tools such as Gemini, ChatGPT, and Midjourney, content that is partially or entirely generated by AI will become increasingly common, including in Africa. One example of this is the clip dedicated to the Lions of Teranga, created entirely using AI for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations by Sen Meta Digital, a digital marketing agency specializing in the creation of innovative content using AI.