Canal+ secures top-tier Turkish football for African channel

French pay TV operator Canal+’s international arm has secured the exclusive rights to distribute coverage of Turkish top-tier football via its new A+ Sport channel for Francophone sub-Saharan Africa.

The Vivendi-owned operator has secured the distribution rights to Turkish Süper Lig matches in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa for the next three seasons. The matches will be aired on the recently-launched A+ Sport channel from August.

The pay TV operator said that the agreement would strengthen the football offering of the channel which launched 10 days ago. The Süper Lig, featuring teams such as Besiktas, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, is popular in Africa because of its large number of players of African origin, including Atalyaspor’s Samuel Eto’o, Istambul Basaksehir’s Emmanuel Adebayor, Fenerbahçe’s Carlos Kameni and Mathieu Valbuena, Besktas’s Pepe and Galatasaray’s Bafétimbi Gomis and Younès Belhanda.

A+ Sport, an offshoot of the A+ entertainment channel that Canal+ rolled out three years ago, will show a variety of local and international sport, including coverage from the Jeux de la Francophonie, the final phases of the CAF Confederations Cup, and the Basketball Champions League.