FIFA WC 2025: Broadcaster New World TV could break the hearts of African viewers

A giant with clay feet facing the challenge of broadcasting
By shaking up the African media landscape during the allocation of rights to the 2022 and 2026 World Championships at the expense of its historical partner Canal+ Afrique, the private Togolese group based in Lomé had struck a blow and wanted to embody "Africa through Africa". An ambitious positioning that now clashes with the harsh reality on the ground. With only seven days to go, the general public is still largely unaware of the identity of the official broadcaster. New World TV suffers from a glaring deficit of notoriety and visibility among fans, while technical access poses a major problem, official decoders remaining too little widespread and distribution agreements moving at a snail’s pace.

This paid offer is supposed to cover nineteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The network thus encompasses West Africa through Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea, but also Central Africa with Cameroon, Gabon, DR Congo, Congo, the Central African Republic and Chad. The areas of East Africa and the Indian Ocean are also concerned, including Rwanda, Burundi, Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles.

For the public who do not have the means or access to this subscription, the horizon is particularly limited. Out of the 104 matches of the tournament, only 34 matches will be sub-licensed to free national channels across 43 territories. With only one match per day, the vast majority of fans will either have to turn to the radio or switch into illegality via pirated streaming streams to follow the competition, heightening the specter of mass hacking.

Explosive scenes under the gears of debts
This technical fragility is only the tip of the iceberg. Internally, the group’s financial situation is described as explosive. The first warning signs had already been highlighted by the magazine Jeune Afrique, which recently revealed the accumulation of major financial problems within the Togolese channel, leading to many departures from sports newsrooms. Today, languages are being untied and disappointments are accelerating. According to our information, the channel’s Parisian studio had to close its doors for lack of payment of invoices to service providers (200,000 euros according to our information), while the production of flagship programs around the Champions League was brutally interrupted in France to be urgently relocated to Lomé in order to reduce costs.

This financial challenge is accompanied by a real social revolt. Several journalists are currently blocked by strict exclusivity clauses with New World TV even though they no longer receive their salaries. Pushed to the limit by this precarious situation, some of them have officially decided to take legal action against the channel for breach of contract and non-payment, complicating an already deleterious working environment.

Visa logistics fiasco and more
At a time when media delegations from around the world are settling in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, some of New World TV’s teams are stuck on the tarmac. Yet the channel rented a complete studio in New Jersey to house its teams and animate its news segments. All this for an amount of around 300,000 euros for the duration of the 2026 World Cup. Yet, no presenter or journalist from the channel is currently on site. This surreal situation stems from a major administrative imbroglio with the French technical service provider PGS, responsible for orchestrating logistics production. If the technical team of PGS took its steps on time and obtained its visas for many weeks, it did not include the journalists of the Togolese channel in the procedures, leaving the editorial staff in desperate wait for its consular authorizations.

To cover up this gap on air, the company and the channel are actively seeking an experienced host capable of taking control of programs from the United States, as well as consultants. Behind the scenes, one of the presenters of New World TV categorically refused to participate in the event. In addition to the lack of a visa, he is accused of salary arrears amounting to around 50,000 euros according to our information and is preparing to bring the case before the competent courts.