France

The Court of Appeal in Paris will hear the appeals of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby and pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus over the decision to suspend their rights deal for the Top 14 rugby union league on September 4.

Daniel Bilalian, the director of sport at France Télévisions, has called for a ban to be lifted on advertising on the public-service broadcaster in the evening.

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has followed the English Premier League in vowing to clamp down on footage of goals from its football matches being shown online through video-sharing service Vine.

Mike Kiernan, Analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, looks at audiences in key European markets for the 2014 Tour de France

French digital-terrestrial television channel L’Equipe 21 has acquired rights for the Champions Hockey League, the new European ice hockey club tournament that gets underway today (Thursday) in Czech Republic.

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has acquired rights for the Formula E Championship, the new electric car-racing series operated by the FIA, motorsport’s global governing body.

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has announced it will launch a new multi-sports channel next month.

France’s Ligue Nationale de Rugby has confirmed it will appeal against an order by the Autorité de la Concurrence, the French competition authority, to suspend a rights deal with pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus and hold a new tender process for the rights to the Top 14 rugby union league.

French digital-terrestrial television channel L’Equipe 21 has acquired the rights to the ‘SuperCrunch’ – a pre-season rugby union competition featuring French Top 14 and English Premiership teams.

France’s Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) has been ordered to launch a tender process at the end of the 2014-15 season for the rights to the Top 14 after the Autorité de la Concurrence, the French competition authority, suspended the league’s five-year deal with pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus.

French commercial broadcaster TF1 will register a loss of at least €30m ($41m) on its coverage of football’s 2014 Fifa World Cup despite impressive audience ratings, according to French newspaper Les Echos.

French pay-television operator Ma Chaîne Sport has acquired rights for the 2014 Speedway World Cup.

Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus beat competition from main rival beIN Sports to pick up third-party European Qualifier football rights in France earlier this month.

Eurosport France, the French arm of pan-regional broadcaster Eurosport, has extended its rights deal for the Tour de France through 2020 in a five-year agreement struck with the cycling race’s organiser Amaury Sports Organisation.

Interview with Claudio Aspesi, senior research analyst at Bernstein, on pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus’s recent deal for European Qualifiers rights in France.

Mike Kiernan, Analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, looks at television audiences in the major European markets and America for the 2014 Fifa World Cup