Public-service broadcaster France Télévisions and the Eurosport France division of the pan-regional sports broadcaster have retained media rights for the Coupe de France club football knockout tournament.
The rights, comprising the men’s and women’s versions of the tournament plus the top-tier Division 1 Féminine women’s league, represented one of three domestic packages awarded by Fédération Française de Football, the governing body of football in France. All of the deals cover four seasons, from 2014-15 to 2017-18.
The other two packages, comprising coverage of all France U-21 national team and national women’s team games, were acquired by pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus, which will exploit the rights on its D8 and D17 free-to-air digital-terrestrial television channels.
France Télévisions’ free-to-air channels and Eurosport France will show live coverage of between 35 and 40 men’s Coupe de France matches per season, including the final, plus highlights and magazine programmes.
Eurosport France will show live coverage of between 16 and 22 games from Division 1 Féminine, with France Télévisions’ France 4 channel showing four matches live per season.
The sales process for the Coupe de France package went to a second round of bidding yesterday (Wednesday) after the governing body said that the reserve price had not been reached with the initial bids.