France

Interview with Etienne Capon, director general of the Ligue Nationale de Handball, on the league’s new media-rights deal with pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has acquired rights for the 2014 Fifa World Cup national football team tournament in a sublicensing deal with commercial broadcaster TF1.

French Ligue 1 football club Paris Saint-Germain has launched a Spanish-language version of its in-house channel, PSG TV.

Canal Plus will demand €293m ($401m) in compensation from rival French pay-television broadcaster in a lawsuit submitted to the country’s Tribunal de Commerce business court, according to the BFM Business news website.

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has acquired rights for the Ligue Nationale de Handball (LNH), France’s domestic handball league, it was announced this (Tuesday) afternoon.

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports is close to agreeing a sublicensing deal with commercial broadcaster TF1 for rights to the 2014 Fifa World Cup national football team tournament, according to weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

The Ligue de Football Professionnel, the French football league, has launched a domestic rights sales process for Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, the top two divisions in the country.

The Lagardère Unlimited sports marketing division of media conglomerate Lagardère has announced it will centralise its European football resources.

French public-service broadcaster France Télévisions has extended a rights deal for the French Open and sublicensed rights for the tennis tournament to the Eurosport France national arm of the international sports broadcaster.

Uefa, football’s European governing body, has announced the launch of rights sales processes in France and Poland, for the Uefa Champions League and Europa League club competitions.

French channel MCS Extreme, operated by pay-television operator Ma Chaîne Sport, has acquired rights for the X Games and Red Bull Air Race extreme sports events.

Benfica has agreed a carriage deal with French pay-television operator Numericable for the Portuguese Primeira Liga football club’s basic-tier channel, Benfica TV.

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

Mike Kiernan, analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, reviews the most-watched events of 2013 across 10 of the world’s biggest media markets E

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