The French Football Federation (FFF) has launched an invitation to tender for broadcast rights to the Championnat National, the third tier of club football in the country.
The tender covers rights for four seasons spanning 2020-21 to 2023-24 and applicants have been given until midday (CET) on July 7 to submit their offers.
The rights are currently held by pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus, which began covering the competition at the start of the 2016-17 season. The Vivendi-owned broadcaster produces and broadcasts one match per match week with the remaining fixtures streamed by the FFF on its own digital platforms.
In 2016, Canal Plus took over from basic-tier sports channel Ma Chaîne Sport as the domestic broadcaster of the league. Canal Plus’ three-year contract (from 2016-17 to 2018-19) was worth €600,000 ($678,270) per season. Canal Plus committed to broadcasting 36 games per season with matches to be screened at 3pm on Saturdays.
The rights have been split up into three packages, according to L’Équipe.
Package 1 includes one first-pick fixture per match week (excluding those in Package 3) with matches able to be aired between Thursday evening and Monday evening. Package 2 includes eight matches per match week to be aired on Friday evenings (picks 2 to 9, also excluding those in Package 3).
Finally, Package 3 includes simultaneous ‘multiplex’ coverage of all matches across three match weeks and with the coverage to be shown on Friday evenings.