As announced last week by Louis Biyao, lawyer and spokesperson for New World TV, FIFA has just formalized the extension of its partnership with New World TV for the next FIFA World Cup: FIFA World Cup 26™ and for the FIFA Women's World Cup: FIFA Women's World Cup Brazil 2027™.
NWTV has secured exclusive pay-TV rights for all matches in 19 French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DRC, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo).
In addition, NWTV will be able to sublicense free-to-air rights for 34 matches of the FIFA World Cup 26™ (one per day) and 25 matches of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027™ (also one per day) in 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, DRC, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone.
As Louis Biyao explained, New World TV relies on renowned consultants such as Emmanuel Adebayor, Basile Boli, and Patrice Mboma, and produces studio programs and magazines with a team of seasoned journalists such as David Astorga, Solange Droual Mawuena, and Salah-Eddine Gakou.
New World TV's commercial approach, based on affordable subscription packages, should give soccer fans in sub-Saharan Africa—and there are many of them—broad access to competitions through agreements with telecom operators, or via DTT or IPTV.
For NWTV, choosing which matches to broadcast on free-to-air television may prove difficult. Only one match will be broadcast each day, while it is likely that several African national teams will be playing at the same time, particularly during the group stage.
Nevertheless, the announcement of the partnership with FIFA has, for once, been made several months in advance, which should allow national public and private channels to make arrangements to generate partnerships with advertisers who are keen on this type of event, in which nine African teams will be participating for the first time (four more than in the last World Cup).
Remember that the next World Cup will take place in the United States, Canada, and Mexico from Thursday, June 11, 2026, to Sunday, July 19, 2026. According to our information, matches will kick off between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., depending on the time zones of the different countries, with a small number starting at 4 or 5 a.m.