France

Handball

The Ligue Nationale de Handball, France’s domestic handball league, has signed a digital media partnership with the Sportfive agency.

Football

French Ligue 1 football clubs Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille have opted to end a 10-day boycott of pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus.

Swimming

Pay-television broadcaster beIN Media Group has agreed a four-year rights deal with the French Swimming Federation (FFN).

Rugby Union

The French second-tier rugby union league, the Pro D2, took advantage of strong competition for its rights to secure a massive fee increase in new deals agreed last week.

Rugby Union

Live television audiences for rugby union’s Six Nations championship in 2015 were up year-on year in the tournament’s largest market, the UK, where public-service broadcaster the BBC recorded an average of …
Football

Ligue 1 clubs Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille have said they will not talk to French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus until the end of the 2014-15 season after its footage was used by the French Football League (LFP) to suspend star strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Dimitri Payet.

Rugby Union

Pan-regional broadcaster Eurosport has acquired exclusive international media rights to the Pro D2, the second division of French club rugby union.

French media group Vivendi has entered exclusive talks to acquire 80 per cent of video-sharing website Dailymotion from telecommunications company Orange for €217m ($230m).

Baseball

Pay-television broadcaster beIN Media Group has acquired rights in France to the 2015 Major League Baseball season.

Rugby Union

The French division of pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport, pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus and public-service broadcaster France Télévisions have acquired rights to domestic rugby union league the Pro D2 under five-year deals.

The French Finance Ministry opposes telecommunications company Orange’s exclusive talks to sell a 49-per-cent stake in video-sharing platform Dailymotion to Hong Kong-based telco PCCW, according to the AFP news agency.

Basketball

Pay-television broadcaster beIN Media Group has acquired rights in France to North American women’s basketball league the WNBA, according to L’Equipe.

Media and entertainment company Discovery Communications has increased its stake in the French division of pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport to the 51-per-cent mark.

Basketball

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus is planning to close its Sport Plus television channel, according to L’Equipe.

Tennis

Canadian pay-television sports broadcaster TSN and French-language sister channel RDS have agreed a multi-year extension to a rights deal for the French Open tennis grand slam.

Rugby Union

The domestic media rights value of French rugby union’s Top 14 final increased strongly in new deals agreed last week.

The Lagardère Unlimited sports marketing division of media conglomerate Lagardère has posted a 6.6-per-cent year-on-year fall in turnover in 2014.

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has acquired rights to the 2015 season of US motor racing championship IndyCar.