Orange Côte d'Ivoire TV has just announced that it will be possible to watch all 64 matches of the competition on its app.
With less than a week to go before the start of the competition, this announcement confirms New World TV's difficulty in attracting paying subscribers. Acquired at the last minute and probably at a lower cost, these rights will nevertheless be difficult for Orange to market: no one yet knows on which channel the matches will be shown or how much it will cost to access them.
With just a few days to go before the start of the competition, these uncertainties are provoking a lot of interested or skeptical reactions on social media.
While the 28 best matches will be available free of charge, including all matches involving African teams, it is likely that the number of people likely to subscribe will be limited, as only those who want to watch more than one match per day or who want to see second-tier teams such as Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Croatia, the United States, Iran, or Mexico will be interested.
Will the opportunity to follow stars from Argentina, Poland, or Morocco such as Messi, Lewandowski, or Hakimi, who will not be broadcast on free channels during the first round, be enough to persuade a large number of people to subscribe? It is doubtful.