French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has taken up the option of a two-season extension to its rights contract with the Formula One motor racing championship.
Canal Plus is F1’s current rights-holder in France having signed a three-season contract covering the 2013 to 2015 campaigns.
Canal Plus sports director Thierry Cheleman told French newspaper L’Equipe that the broadcaster has elected to take up its option of extending the deal to include the 2016 and 2017 Formula One campaigns.
“Contractually, we had an option for two (more) seasons,” Cheleman said. “F1 is a success on Canal. We were even rewarded with the title of best international broadcaster in the second year (2014).”
Canal Plus picked up Formula One rights from commercial broadcaster TF1, which had previously covered the sport from 1992 up to 2012.