French public broadcaster France Télévisions has retained its rights to figure skating’s European and World Championships until 2023.
The broadcaster has announced the continuation of its coverage of the two annual events, which both fall under the auspices of the International Skating Union (ISU).
The 2020 European Figure Skating Championships will take place in Graz, Austria and the 2020 World Figure Skating Championships will be held in Montreal, Canada. The World Championships will be staged by France in 2022 when Montpellier plays host.
France Télévisions previously held rights to ISU events through its membership of the European Broadcasting Union, the umbrella body of public broadcasters that last acquired the rights from 2015-16 to 2018-19. However, the Infront agency now holds the worldwide distribution rights (excluding Canada, China, Japan, Korea and the US) in a four-year deal from 2019-20 to 2022-23.
The French public broadcaster is also well-versed in broadcasting figure skating through its coverage of the winter Olympics over the years. France Télévisions showed last year’s winter Olympics from PyeongChang and has also secured sub-licensed rights to the Beijing 2022 (and Paris 2024) Olympics in a deal with Discovery.