NFL action will continue to be shown in France by beIN Sports after the pay-television broadcaster struck a new deal that allows it to show extra programming.
The ‘multi-year’ contract announced today (Wednesday) means beIN will show an extra match on Sundays at 10.25pm (CET) and the weekly NFL Extra programme on Tuesdays at 11pm.
The additional content complements beIN’s existing live coverage of three matches per week with action broadcast live late on Monday, Thursday and Sunday evenings. The NFL’s popular Red Zone multiplex coverage is shown by beIN from 7pm onwards on Sundays.
The agreement spans regular-season and play-off matches in addition to the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl Games.
BeIN has broadcast NFL since launching its channels in France in 2012.
The league will this season enjoy a stronger free-to-air presence in France through a three-year deal with M6. The commercial broadcaster replaces L’Équipe as the French free-to-air rights-holder in a deal encompassing 18 regular-season matches live on 6play, three play-off matches on W9 and the Super Bowl on the flagship M6 channel.
L’Équipe began its NFL coverage in 2020 after TF1, M6’s main commercial rival, held free-to-air rights to the Super Bowl for two seasons. Between 2010 and 2018, live Super Bowl coverage was shown on W9.
In October and November, the NFL will stage three games in London and two in Frankfurt following a successful debut in Germany last year with a game at Munich’s Allianz Arena.
Brett Gosper, the NFL’s head of Europe and UK, told SportBusiness in June that expansion to other European markets has been targeted and that France is under advanced consideration.
“If we get more inventory, we’ll have a better opportunity”, he said. “We have built so much around the games in the UK and Germany. It would be great to do that in more markets.