Canal Plus boosts handball portfolio

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has acquired rights for the country’s handball cup competition for two seasons, from 2012-13 to 2013-14, according to L’Équipe.

Canal Plus will show the men’s and women’s versions of the competition on its Sport Plus pay-television channel.

One year ago, Canal Plus acquired the domestic rights to France’s national handball league for four seasons, from 2011-12 to 2014-15, before sublicensing on some of the rights to public-service broadcaster France Télévisions later in 2011.

Last month, Canal Plus’s rival pay-television broadcaster Al Jazeera acquired the rights in France to the handball European Champions League in a five-year deal, from 2012-13 to 2016-17, with the MP & Silva agency.