Sporty TV Secures Rights To The Upcoming FIFA World Cup Games

Sports broadcasting service SportyTV has announced it has secured the rights to show all 104 matches of the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 in South Africa on a pay-TV basis.

SportyTV inked the deal one year after launching in the South African market, and it said all World Cup matches will be streamed on its streaming platform.

It has apps for Android and iOS, as well as support for major TV brands. Currently, accessing SportyTV requires creating a SportyBet account.

SportyTV also has a channel on Openview, which it launched in 2025. However, Openview is a free-to-view satellite TV platform, and SportyTV has secured the pay-TV rights to the FIFA World Cup.

The company has made no explicit announcement about whether it will or will not show the matches on eMedia’s Openview platform.

“Having entered South Africa with a bold statement through the broadcast of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, the platform now acquires the biggest sporting event on the planet,” SportyTV announced.

“This move firmly establishes its dominance in one of Africa’s most competitive media landscapes.”

SportyTV said the production will match the scale of the rights and that it will deliver comprehensive pre- and post-match coverage from its studios in Cape Town and Madrid.

A lineup of commentators and football pundits will be revealed soon, with the company adding that it will deploy crews in the United States, Canada and Mexico to follow the South African national team.

“Beyond live coverage, the platform will execute a fully integrated 360° content strategy, combining always-on digital output, social-first storytelling, and real-time fan engagement.”

Elias Gallego, SportyGroup’s VP of business development, marketing, and media, said that the 2026 World Cup is the perfect stage to showcase the company’s digital content ecosystem in South Africa.

“With this agreement, SportyTV is revamping the model for sports broadcasting in emerging markets, combining accessibility, premium production, and integrated monetisation at scale.”

Alongside the upcoming FIFA World Cup games, SportyTV also provides live content, original programming and digital-first experiences in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.

According to its website, the company’s programming is available on Openview’s channel 125. Its app has over five million downloads across its markets on Android and iOS.

SportyTV said that it wants to position itself as the “definitive home” of the FIFA World Cup 2026 in South Africa.

MultiChoice Might Be Adding Sporty TV To DStv Consumers In Some African Countries

Sporty TV is a 24/7 free-to-air sports channel operated by Sporty Group, known for SportyBET. It positions itself as a "home of premium football" for African audiences, offering a mix of live matches, highlights, and specialized sports programming.

Since last year, it had been distributed on eMedia Investments' Openview platform offering a variety of events from Premier League, La Liga and Serie A. Most of which is already accessible via MultiChoice and Canal+ Afrique consumers.

Now it looks like MultiChoice might be adding Sporty TV soon but not to DStv customers in South Africa and probably most of Africa. As tests for this channel has been labelled as Sporty TV Kenya.

Why would MultiChoice want with Sporty TV as it a majority of content is on SuperSport?

But my understanding in this regard is that Canal+ took control of the company since September 2025 and stripped SuperSport of its decision making in Randburg as all of this is now done in Paris.

Post the takeover, Canal+ has been very vocal about the difference in strategies between both parties. 

MultiChoice offered Africa's leading streaming service Showmax which rivalled with it's DStv offering and cost the company billions in losses. Canal+ was all about alignment with it's content spread across platforms.

The same could be said about Canal+'s procurement of content they've done deals with Sky Sport, Bein Sport and DAZN. MultiChoice tried piling up these duties under SuperSport and that never panned out when ESPN first exited the African space.

You can only assume with the addition of Sporty TV, Canal+ has taken up a new approach in procuring content for MultiChoice customers. Canal+ is more focused on leveraging of existing IPs while MultiChoice wanted to be that have it all company.