France

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

French digital-terrestrial television channel L’Equipe 21 has acquired rights for a number of pre-season friendly matches featuring two football teams from the English Premier League.

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has acquired media rights for international football qualifying matches for the Uefa Euro 2016 and Fifa 2018 World Cup tournaments, according to daily newspaper l’Equipe.

There were mixed results for broadcasters of this year's French Open, Mike Kiernan, analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence explains

Champions League victor Real Madrid secured the largest revenue payment from European football’s governing body Uefa for competing in the tournament’s 2013-14 edition, with Paris Saint-Germain securing second spot due to the size of its payment from the television market pool.

Olivier Schrameck, the president of the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel, has said that there is a need for the French media regulator to intervene in sports-rights negotiations to ensure major events are available on free-to-air television.

Canal Plus has had a demand for €293m ($398m) in compensation from rival French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports thrown out by the Tribunal de Commerce business court.