Canal+ Benin: a new season featuring major sporting events, new content, and commitment to local talent

The new season promises to be rich on Canal+ Benin’s channels. To present the main directions for the new season, executives, partners, and audiovisual sector players gathered on Wednesday for a press conference dedicated to content, commercial offers, and the channel’s commitments. Opening the event, Moumine Wologan, head of communications at Canal+ Benin, recalled the ambition of this meeting: to enable the media to better understand the new features in order to make them known to the public.

More than 40 sporting competitions on the schedule

Sport remains one of the main pillars of Canal+’s offering. For the 2026-2027 season, subscribers will find more than 40 competitions covering several disciplines. African and European football, cycling, basketball, tennis, motorsports, and combat sports are all on the program. The French Ligue 1, English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, UEFA Champions League, as well as CAF competitions are notably offered. The group also highlights African cycling events such as the Tour of Benin, Tour of Ivory Coast, and Tour of Rwanda, along with Formula 1, MotoGP, and PFL Africa.

This diversity allows Canal+ to claim its positioning as the “most beautiful sports field.” This offering is spread across several Canal+ Sport channels. Canal+ Sport 1 serves as the gateway to major sporting events, featuring several African and European competitions, as well as shows like Talent d’Afrique, J+1, La Soirée des Champions or Canal Africa Club.

Canal+ Sport 2 particularly emphasizes major European matches, while Canal+ Sport 3 notably offers the Premier League and combat sports. Canal+ Sport 4 is dedicated to multisport and motorsports. Golf and tennis complete the programming on Canal+ Sport 5.

UEFA exclusively from 2027

One of the major announcements of this season launch concerns the men’s UEFA competitions. Canal+ announced it has secured, for four seasons starting in 2027-2028, all men’s UEFA competitions in sub-Saharan Africa. Subscribers will thus be able to follow the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League on its channels until 2031.

This acquisition notably meets the expectations of football fans who, in recent years, sometimes had to multiply sources to follow European competitions. “ From the 2027-2028 season, and for four seasons, Canal+ has secured 100% of the men’s UEFA competitions ,” emphasized Moumine Wologan. Another highlighted element: the competitions will be offered in French, with editorial coverage relying on commentators, consultants, and production setups presented as distinguishing features of the group.

Sports, but also films, series, and entertainment

Canal+ also intends to remind that its offering is not limited to football. The season launch programming also includes films, series, telenovelas, and entertainment shows. Estella Masso, head of the Cotonou sector, presented several productions aimed at different audiences. Among them are Clash, which tells the rivalry between two former musical partners, Angel Has Fallen, an action film broadcast on Canal+ Action, as well as the second season of Spin-Off, expected in October.

On A+ Benin, viewers will notably be able to follow Sous le masque, a series centered on four childhood friends bound by secrets, while Réveille-toi is aimed at telenovela fans. Liaisons interdites, whose broadcast is scheduled to begin in mid-September, will complement this programming. On Novelas TV, Les Hommes de Lagos dives into the world of business and power struggles in Nigeria. Entertainment is not forgotten with the announced return of Secret Story for a third season in October, as well as Vie VIP, a reality show dedicated to celebrities from Francophone wrestling.

The CANAL+ app as an extension of the experience

Beyond traditional channels, the group is also betting on its CANAL+ app, presented as a tool to extend the experience across different screens. Subscribers can find there the content included in their package, live channels, as well as several features designed to facilitate viewing.

Replay allows watching programs already broadcast. Football fans can access live statistics and information, while the Multi function allows following several programs simultaneously. Another highlighted feature: live control, which allows pausing a program, resuming viewing, or rewinding.

Offers designed to attract and retain

This season launch is also accompanied by commercial offers aimed at both new customers and existing subscribers. The Access offer is priced at 5,000 CFA francs. New customers can, depending on the presented offer, benefit from an HD decoder at 5,000 FCFA, free installation, and a satellite dish at 1,000 FCFA. The group thus highlights an entry ticket of 11,000 FCFA to access the Access package, the decoder, and the satellite dish.

Canal+ Benin also claims to have nearly 400,000 equipped households. To reward subscriber loyalty, a current promotion allows benefiting from 30 additional days of channels when renewing the usual package. “ Our goal is not only to win new subscribers. We also want to retain those who have been with us for several years ,” explained Alioun Cissé, sales director of Canal+ Benin.

Supporting Beninese audiovisual

Beyond content and commercial offers, the evening also highlighted Canal+’s societal commitments in Benin. For Moumine Wologan, the role of the media is essential to give visibility to initiatives carried out on the ground. “ We are therefore proud to be Beninese and proud to be a brand committed to Benin ,” he stated, before presenting Canal+ as “the leading partner of Beninese audiovisual.”

Supporting local talent is notably one of the axes of this policy. Invited to testify, Kismath Baguiri, a director and actress in the Beninese audiovisual ecosystem, explained that she has benefited several times from Canal+’s support, notably through training, masterclasses, and projects aimed at professionalizing talent. Since 2017, the Ciné 229 initiative has benefited from the support of several group entities, including Canal+ University, Canal+ Impact, Canal+ International, and Canal+ Benin.

For Kismath Baguiri, this support goes beyond mere visibility. “Our ambition is also to be a bridge,” she explained, emphasizing the importance of facilitating Beninese talents’ access to markets and international productions.

Beninese talents in pan-African productions

This support policy is gradually opening doors for Beninese professionals in productions made in several African countries. Some talents have thus participated in projects in Nigeria, notably on the second season of Aníkúlápó, under the direction of director Kunle Afolayan. Others have worked on productions in Ivory Coast such as Clash, La Dernière Voix, Chonel, Kakao or Familles en or. Experiences have also been conducted in Senegal, notably around La Cité, which Kismath Bagiri had the opportunity to co-direct.

The director cites several Beninese professionals who participated in these productions: Alain Nagnon, director of photography for Clash, Olivier Possat in post-production, Nathiba Tibrahi in costumes, and Raymond Haïté, first assistant director. “The talents we reward and highlight do not only receive awards. We also support them towards international productions ” she insisted. This dynamic contributes, according to her, to strengthening the position of Beninese professionals in the African audiovisual industry and enabling them to make a better living from their work.

A back-to-school season focused on the future

Through this new season, Canal+ Benin aims to play on several fronts: strengthening its sports offering, diversifying its content, facilitating access to its services, and continuing its support for the local audiovisual ecosystem. The prospect of exclusivity for the three major men’s UEFA competitions starting in 2027 is the main highlight announced for football fans. But the stated ambition goes beyond sports. Films, series, entertainment, digital features, and initiatives supporting local talent outline a strategy aimed at establishing Canal+ as a player present both in households and in the development of Beninese audiovisual creation.

For Kismath Baguiri, this relationship between Canal+ and local professionals deserves to continue: ” Canal+ is the “plus,” and the group truly plays this role in the film ecosystem that is gradually taking shape in Benin. ” A way to summarize the ambition expressed during this back-to-school season: to offer more content to subscribers while simultaneously helping to bring forth a new generation of Beninese talent.