Quartet Begins Race to Final, Orange Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers. Photo: Confederation of African Football

[Via Satellite 01-20-2015] Spacecom has been selected for broadcast services from its Amos 5 satellite at 17 degrees east for the bi-annual football championship competition, the Confederation of African Football‘s (CAF) Orange Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). The competition will use the satellite’s pan-African C-band beam to broadcast the three-week competition in HD. A total of 16 national teams are competing in the tournament at four sites in Equatorial Guinea, with the championship game to take place in the city of Bata.

SatLink Communications is providing the C-band capacity to Lagardère Sports subsidiary Sportfive Africa. The company is uplinking the games directly from the sporting venues, and is using one of its teleports to provide all ground services for the contribution of the tournament to Asia and Europe.

Spacecom has transmitted previous large-scale sporting events in and to Africa, including the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games from London to Africa, the South African Super Rugby Games and the Nedbank Golf Challenge. The company’s next satellite, Amos 6, is slated to launch this year aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.