As the AFCON 2021 draws to a close on Sunday, February 6, AfroSport Television, the official broadcaster of the tournament and Nigeria’s first 24-hour Free-To-Air sports channel, said it has recorded astonishing milestones by reaching over 60 million viewers during the group and round of 16 stage.
Analysing the reports, the Principal Consultant of AfroSport TV, Rotimi Pedro said the feat was achieved in collaboration with three of Nigeria’s terrestrial television networks; Nigerian Television Authority, Silverbird Television, AIT and the AfroSport TV channel 730 on the digital TV platform, Free. TV as well as other content affiliate state broadcasters.
Pedro said there was a slight dip in viewership after the elimination of Nigeria at the round of 16 stage, but the Nigerian passionate football audience soon forgot about the pain of the elimination of their darling team and viewership picked up again at the semi-final stage with the Egypt vs Cameroon match and is expected to reach 65 million and an estimated 3 million free streams on its Vidivu OTT platform during the final match on Sunday, the 6th of February.
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The AfroSport TV boss said collaboration and partnership remain the bedrock on which the milestones have been achieved. He remarked that “As a channel that is less than a year since its inception, AfroSport TV has come this far through the dedication, passion, focus and ambition of its people; as well as the collaboration of our broadcast partners – NTA, AIT and STV, a network of private and state/regional broadcasters, the National Broadcasting Commission’s (NBC) digital platform – Free TV and of course the support of Flutterwave, our esteemed sponsor of the broadcast of all the 52 live matches of the AFCON competition.”
Pedro said this is a testament to the power of a channel on an FTA platform that touches the core of the passion of the people and their love for sports. The channel has indeed enabled millions of sports fans across the country and the continent to be part of the thrills and frills of the continental football fiesta. From securing the broadcast rights, to the test transmission window and then beaming the first signals from the AFCON 2021, AfroSport TV has come full circle from being a dream to a reality, one born out of the desire to make premium sports content available to millions of fans deprived of the means to view and enjoy what they are passionate about
He assured sports fans that AfroSport will continue to offer Nigerians and indeed Africans exciting sports content through the acquisition of rights to world-class sports content. If the assurances are anything to go by, then millions of sports fans in Nigeria and across the continent are indeed at the cusp of enjoying quality sports content for free on AfroSport TV.
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