France

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

French digital-terrestrial television channel L’Equipe 21 has acquired rights for the Baku 2015 European Games multi-sport event.

François Pellissier, the director of sports at French commercial broadcaster TF1, has said that its Sunday morning Téléfoot programme will only be able to show clips of goals from the previous weekend of action from January 1.

Bertrand Méheut, the chief executive of Canal Plus, has said that he is “happy” that rival French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has entered the market.

Pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport has agreed a deal with the Ligue Nationale de Volley for the rights to the Ligue A Féminine, the top division of French women’s volleyball.

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has increased its portfolio of North American major league rights by acquiring the exclusive rights to the 2014 World Series, the championship series of Major League Baseball.

France Télévisions last week agreed a deal covering the European Rugby Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, taking European Professional Club Rugby to a strong rights fee from the French market.

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has broadened the reach of its new beIN Sports 3 channel by agreeing a carriage deal with satellite television operator Fransat.