French public-service broadcaster France Télévisions has extended a rights deal for coverage of the Six Nations rugby union tournament and France national team autumn internationals.
The Six Nations deal will run for five years, from 2018 to 2022, while the autumn internationals agreement will cover five seasons, from 2016-17 to 2020-21.
The Six Nations rights were sealed with the Six Nations Committee.
The rights for the France autumn internationals, including warm-up matches ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, were agreed with the French Federation of Rugby (FFR).
The federation also awarded rights covering the France team in the women’s Six Nations event and the Top 8, the top women’s domestic tournament in the country, as well as amateur rugby competitions.
France Télévisions acquired rights for live coverage of the national women’s team in the Six Nations and the final of the Top 8, which will also be shown live by the French division of pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport. Eurosport will broadcast delayed coverage of France national women’s team games.
The U-20 Six Nations rights were not awarded by the federation after it said that the bids were not of a sufficient value. The rights will be put out to tender again following a consultation.
The FFR also awarded rights for the domestic amateur Fédérale 1 and Jean Prat Trophy tournaments and one France v Barbarians representative team match per season to French digital-terrestrial television channel L’Équipe 21 for the same five-year period.