French free-to-air and pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has tabled a bid of between €45 million ($58 million) and €50 million per year for the next cycle of Formula One rights in the country, according to the Sportune news website.
Canal Plus plans to exploit the rights on its free-to-air general entertainment channel Direct 8.
The report said that the bid was about double the amount offered by free-to-air commercial broadcaster TF1, which is the incumbent rights-holder in a five-year deal from 2008 to 2012.
The report added that talks had taken place initially about the possibility of allowing 10 races per year to be shown on TF1 and the remainder to be broadcast on Canal Plus channels, but the latter now wants to acquire all of the available rights.