FFF partners with Canal Plus, Dailymotion for Championnat National rights

The French Football Federation has agreed a three-season rights deal with pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus for its Championnat National league.

It has also partnered with video-sharing platform Dailymotion to develop a new service for the third tier of the domestic game.

The FFF said the rights fee for the agreements is €600,000 ($661,000) per season across the 2016-17 to 2018-19 campaigns.

Canal Plus will broadcast 36 games per season from the National, with matches to be screened at 3pm on Saturdays.

The remaining eight matches from each round of the National will be live streamed through a dedicated platform developed by the FFF in partnership with Dailymotion. FFF president Noël Le Graët described the deals as a “huge breakthrough” and a “new start” for the division.

Basic-tier sports broadcaster Ma Chaîne Sport, which is now known as SFR Sport 2, had held the rights to the National with French newspaper L’Équipe stating the new deal is worth three times more than the previous contract.