ESPN Across Africa: English Football League, Major League Baseball And More In August

FOOTBALL SEASON RETURNS

The European football leagues return in August for the 2025/26 season 

Catch all the action from the English Football League (EFL), Scottish Premier Football League (SPFL), Dutch Eredivisie and the DFB Pokal.

MLB

The 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) season is full throttle with all 30 teams scheduled to play 162 games across a season that culminates in the World Series in November.

The biggest hits, the quickest pitchers, the brilliant catches and all the home run action every week Live on ESPN.

Key Fixtures:

Tigers vs Pirates – 19 June

Yankees vs Orioles – 21 June

Astros vs Phillies – 26 June

Brewers vs Rockies – 29 June

NRL

The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league competition featuring teams from Australia and New Zealand. The conclusion to the NRL 2025 regular season reaches breakpoint.

Watch the NRL on ESPN Africa every weekend! 

Please note: 

All fixtures and schedules are subject to change. 

Broadcast times are provided in CAT (Central African Time) 

How to tune in to ESPN:

ESPN: DStv 218, Starsat 248 

ESPN2: DStv 219, Starsat 249

Recap To The Week: DStv Could Be Losing More Channels As Skydance Has Been Given The Greenlight To Acquire Paramount Global

Not long ago, the Federal Communication Commission gave Skydance the greenlight to acquire Paramount Global, the owners of MTV and CBS. Prior to this, Paramount Global was looking to shed costs by shuttering parts of its operations in Europe and Africa.

Paramount Global is looking to close various MTV channels by 31 December 2024 in Europe which include MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s and Club MTV. In Africa, they're looking to scale back on local operations hinting at the potential demises of BET and MTV Base.

This article is here to elaborate on various things regarding Paramount Africa. Aside from BET and MTV Base, even Nicktoons, MTV and Nick Jr in Ethiopia had all been localised over the years and this is to sum up what is likely to happen.

As reported, BET and MTV Base might be going away soon and with the Skydance transaction underway I'd give before the end of 2025 to mid 2026. BET is launching a new drama next month titled Black Gold unless that gets scrapped or shipped to another outlet.

My point here is that these channels curated a lot of content within the region particularly MTV Base. With this area closed, BET will look a lot like Comedy Central (redundant) and had been that way until these local stuff made its way to the channel giving it relevance.

MTV Base won't survive when Paramount Global shutters it's operations in Africa as its become another Trace Africa. They can't just follow their sister network MTV's weekday morning schedule and offer international hits from Coldplay and Taylor Swift as they'd risk losing it's viewers in Lagos.

It wouldn't shock me if MTV Base were to close on 31 December 2024 alongside it's European natives. Maybe BET will tag along and MultiChoice would presumably replace it with another TV channel or risk losing more consumers.

As for MTV, I recall that Paramount Global has a unified feed for the channel in Europe known as MTV Global presuming that's what is to become of MTV Africa as opposed to a complete shutdown.

Nick Jr. in Ethiopia is a much stronger candidate to get shut down following Canal+'s exist in the region. Because while Nicktoons has it for only 4 hours in day this is a whole channel or to corporate wasteful spending. There's plenty of countries that dub but Ethiopia lacks the scale to sustain the channel.

Nicktoons very much like Ethiopia has been dubbing in other parts of Africa through the block Nick In Your Language presuming that's going away as well. Of course, there are a handful of companies dubbing shows independently so it wouldn't be a loss if Nick In Your Language were to fade away.

Same goes for NickMusic which was produced under the same unit as MTV Base.

The FCC Approves Paramount And Skydance's Merger Attempt

The Federal Communications Commission has cleared the way for Paramount Global to complete its merger with Skydance Media, announcing Thursday that it has approved the deal. The decision removes a final hurdle for the media and entertainment companies to close their transaction.

The FCC's approval, which was necessary for the deal to move forward, caps a long-running corporate saga over the fate of Paramount, which owns Paramount+, the Paramount Pictures movie and television studios, the CBS television network and CBS News and Stations. Paramount also owns Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and other media brands. 

Paramount Global agreed to merge with David Ellison's Skydance Media in July 2024 after briefly halting negotiations the month before. The deal followed a long, turbulent sales process that drew interest from other major corporate players and investors, including Seagram heir Edgar Bronfman Jr., media mogul Barry Diller, Sony Pictures and private equity firm Apollo Global Management, and Allen Media, the company controlled by former comedian Byron Allen. 

Paramount had said it expected to close the $8.4 billion merger in the first half of 2025. But the first half of the year came and went, and the merger remained under review by the FCC and its chair Brendan Carr, who had been appointed to the role earlier this year by President Trump.

Late on July 1, Paramount announced it had settled a lawsuit with Mr. Trump over the editing of a "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris, a suit that Paramount told the court was without merit. The company agreed to pay $16 million — most of which would go to Mr. Trump's presidential library — and agreed to publish transcripts of future "60 Minutes" interviews with presidential candidates after those interviews air on the show. Mr. Trump has since said he expects Paramount's new owners to offer him about $20 million in advertising and PSAs. Paramount said in a statement it had no knowledge of any commitments to Mr. Trump outside of its $16 million settlement, and Skydance didn't respond to requests for comment.

In two letters to the FCC earlier this week, Skydance pledged to hire a CBS News ombudsman to review complaints of editorial bias for a period of at least two years, and the company confirmed that Paramount had eliminated or modified its DEI programs and hiring practices earlier this year.

E! News Nightly Show Has Been Cancelled On E! As The Brand Pivots Toward A Digital Future

E! News has been canceled as a linear television show, a source with knowledge of the decision. It will officially end on Sept. 25; the nightly entertainment-news program launched in 1991. The show had a two-year hiatus during COVID. E! News will continue on as a digital brand.

Employees learned of the cancellation news yesterday. Tonight’s show will be a repeat; new episodes will resume next week. Access Hollywood and Access Daily will continue on as normal from their production facility at Terrace Studios.

Some E! News correspondents will follow the channel to Versant (formerly referred to simply as SpinCo.), the source said, though those roles are as TBD.

NBCUniversal has split itself in two. The NBC broadcast network, the studios, Peacock and Bravo will stay as key pieces of NBCU; all of the rest (USA Network, Syfy, E!, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen and Golf Channel, plus digital businesses Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes and Golf Now) will make up new company Versant.

Versant will be led by CEO Mark Lazarus, chief financial officer and chief operating officer Anand Kini, and chairman David Novak; other senior executives will be plucked from the ranks of NBCUniversal.

Cable channel E! still airs (some) original programming, like Botched Presents: Plastic Surgery Rewind and Honestly Cavallari: The Headline Tour, as well as acquired content. The network recently announced upcoming series Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane and E!’s Dirty Rotten Scandals. The network remains a destination for red-carpet coverage as well as January’s Critics Choice Awards.

Competition Tribunal Approve Canal+ And MultiChoice Merger Deal

The Competition Tribunal has agreed to support the acquisition of MultiChoice Group by London-listed Groupe Canal+, removing a major hurdle to their deal being consummated.

The tribunal approved the proposed transaction, subject to conditions agreed earlier this year by the merging parties.

“As was previously disclosed, the agreed conditions include a robust package of guaranteed public interest commitments proposed by the parties. The package supports the participation of firms controlled by historically disadvantaged persons (HDPs) and small, medium and micro enterprises in the audio-visual industry in South Africa. This package will maintain funding for local South African general entertainment and sports content, providing local content creators with a strong foundation for future success.”

The approval by the tribunal “concludes the competition review process in South Africa” and followed a “positive recommendation” by the Competition Commission in May.

“The parties remain on track to complete the mandatory offer by Canal+ within the timeline announced on 8 April 2025, and prior to the long-stop date of 8 October 2025.”

In a statement, Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada said the approval by the tribunal is “a hugely positive step forward in our journey to bring together two iconic media and entertainment companies and create a true champion for Africa”.

MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela added: “The announcement marks a significant milestone and is a major step forward for both companies.”

The merging parties will now undertake the process needed to implement the structure as previously announced in February. This structure “meets the requirements of all applicable laws, including the restrictions on foreign ownership and control of South African broadcasting licences contained in the Electronic Communications Act”, the companies said. “The structure includes MultiChoice (Pty) Ltd, the entity which contracts with South African subscribers, being carved out of MultiChoice Group and becoming an independent entity, majority owned and controlled by HDPs.”