France

Eurosport generated a significant rise in operating profit despite a fall in revenue in 2013, according to French media company TF1, the pan-regional sports broadcaster’s parent company.

French football federation enjoys increase in rights fee for domestic cup

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has acquired rights for the World Rally Championship motor-racing series.

Top 14 rights saga is case study in the use of market power

Public-service broadcaster France Télévisions and the Eurosport France division of the pan-regional sports broadcaster have retained media rights for the Coupe de France club football knockout tournament.

Bids for a domestic package of rights in France to the Coupe de France football club knockout competitions for men and women and Division 1 Féminine, the country’s top division of women’s football, have failed to meet the reserve price, according to French newspaper l’Equipe.

TF1 pays less for France matches but Uefa still happy with deal

TF1’s Le Lay says focus is now on major events

BeIN Sports has warned that it could take legal action over the sudden award of Top 14 media rights to rival pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus by France’s Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), the body that operates the rugby union club competition.

Interview with Laurent-Éric Le Lay, head of sports rights acquisitions for TF1 and head of TF1 Publicité, on why the French commercial broadcaster has bought rights to France national team football matches.

Public-service broadcaster France Télévisions is unlikely to acquire rights for the 2014 Fifa World Cup national team football tournament, according to director of sport Daniel Bilalian.

Canal Plus has extended a rights deal for the Top 14 just days after France’s Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), the body that operates the rugby union club competition, said it had postponed a domestic rights tender after becoming the subject of legal action by the French pay-television broadcaster.

Daniel Bilalian, the director of sport at France Télévisions, has said that the public-service broadcaster would only be prepared to show an officially-recognised European rugby union competition.

France’s Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), the league body that operates the country's top-tier Top 14 and second-tier ProD2 rugby union divisions, has postponed a domestic rights tender after becoming the subject of legal action by pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus.

Canal Plus has called for rival pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports to be barred from competing in the tender for the next cycle of domestic rights to the top tier of French football, Ligue 1.

The French government’s proposed amendment to the country’s so-called ‘Buffet’ tax on sports broadcasts has been rejected by the Conseil Constitutionnel, the country’s top constitutional body.