European Professional Club Rugby, the new European governing body for club rugby, has launched a tender for the broadcast rights to the new Champions Cup and Challenge Cup competitions in France.
The tender covers the four seasons spanning 2014-15 to 2017-18, with rights being split into four packages. The deadline for responses to the tender has been set at June 18, with the reserve price being placed at €27m ($37m) per season, according to the BFMTV.com website.
European rugby’s stakeholders in April agreed terms on three new cross-border competitions that will replace the existing Heineken Cup and Challenge Cup tournaments from the 2014-15 season.
The three new competitions will be called the Champions Cup, the Challenge Cup and the Qualifying Competition. The competitions have been formed under a minimum eight-year agreement.
Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus and public-service broadcaster France Télévisions held the rights to the top-tier Heineken Cup, with the second-tier Challenge Cup being broadcast by the Eurosport France national arm of the international sports broadcaster, as well as France Télévisions.