France

Rugby League

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Media Group has agreed a three-year extension to its rights deal for rugby league’s Super League, which comprises clubs from England and France, and will also continue to broadcast Australian competition the NRL, according to Mediasportif.fr.

Handball

French commercial broadcaster TF1 has confirmed a rights deal for the 2015 men’s World Handball Championships, while public-service broadcaster France Télévisions has struck an agreement to show the women’s World Championships later this year.

Football

French basic-tier sports broadcaster Ma Chaîne Sport has acquired rights for the Copa Libertadores football club cup tournament in Latin America, while beIN Media Group has snapped up rights for this year’s Copa America national team competition, according to the Media Sportif news website.

Motorsport

Mike Kiernan, analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, reviews television audiences across the big five markets for the recently concluded Formula One World Championship

Football

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has agreed a two-year deal for the exclusive rights to football’s German Bundesliga, according to L'Équipe.

Mixed Martial Arts

Pay-television broadcaster Kombat Sport has agreed a deal to launch a channel dedicated to the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts organisation, which will be available exclusively through French pay-television operator Numericable.

Handball

French commercial broadcaster TF1 has agreed a deal for rights to the 2015 men’s World Handball Championships, according to L’Equipe.

Rugby Union

The Ligue Nationale de Rugby, which operates the French professional rugby union league, has launched the sales process for rights to the top-tier Top 14 and second-tier Pro D2 divisions.

Handball

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports is seeking bids from free-to-air broadcasters in the country for rights to the finals of the men’s and women’s World Handball Championships next year.

Eurosport France will withdraw from the country’s digital-terrestrial television market when media and entertainment company Discovery Communications increases its stake in the French division of pan-European sports broadcaster to the 51-per-cent mark.

Football

French digital-terrestrial television broadcaster W9 has secured rights to broadcast the 2015 Fifa Women’s World Cup national team football tournament.

Rugby Union

Paul Goze, the president of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, has said that the auction for the domestic rights to the Top 14, the top division of rugby union in France, will take place before the end of January.

Motorsport

Mike Kiernan, analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, examines live television audiences in Europe’s five largest markets for motorcycling’s MotoGP world championship

Football

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports will launch a new ‘multiplex’ service for its coverage of the Uefa Champions League, ahead of the next round of matches from the European club football competition.

Football

The Ligue de Football Professionnel, the football league in France, has warned that it will step up legal action against social media website Twitter and its Vine application.

Rugby Union

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has lodged an appeal against the decision to hold a new tender process for the rights to the Top 14 rugby union league, according to the BFM Business website.

Rugby Union

French commercial broadcaster TF1 has issued a tender to pay-television operators for the sublicensing of a rights package to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, according to L’Equipe.

Football

The French Football Federation will launch its first channel on video-sharing website Dailymotion on Saturday, with the new platform dedicated to live coverage of the domestic game’s various amateur championships.