An extraordinary General Assembly of the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) has been held in Dakar to try and resolve problems relating to sports rights acquisitions across the continent.

Held at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Senegal Macky Sall, Director Generals of broadcasters across Africa came together to discuss solutions ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations early next year and the tender for the Africa rights for the FIFA World Cup which will be launched in the Autumn.

Apart from the increasing costs of the main international sports rights contracts, broadcasters are struggling to acquire rights because of both the abnormal segmentation of the continent based purely on sports agencies interests - with North Africa, South Africa and Nigeria excluded from the general contract - and also the non-application of the fair clauses applied to other continents on sublicensing, news access, highlights and archive use.

The EBU, led by Pascal Fratellia, worked with the AUB to draw up a proposal that was inspired by European Union legislation on the rights of citizens to access key sports and cultural events free-to-air. President Sall will take the proposal to the next Summit of the Heads of State of the African Union in July. Senegal, together with Algeria, will lead a coalition of countries in support of the proposal.

The EBU will continue to work with the AUB to drive change and ensure audiences across the continent can enjoy free access to the world’s leading sports events.