France Télévisions open to sharing Paris 2024 rights

Laurent-Eric Le Lay, director of sports for France Télévisions, has said the public-service broadcaster is open to sharing rights to the 2024 summer Olympic Games, which will be hosted in the French capital, Paris.

France Télévisions, the longtime home of the Olympics in France, is currently engaged in the process to determine who will broadcast Paris 2024 in the event’s host country.

US media and entertainment company Discovery Communications holds the exclusive multimedia rights for 50 countries and territories in Europe for the Olympic Games spanning 2018 through to 2024, under a deal signed with the International Olympic Committee in June 2015. The contract applies to the 2022 and 2024 Games only in France.

Reports late last year said France Télévisions was not ruling out the possibility of simply giving up on rights to the 2024 Games due to the high price expected to be demanded by Discovery.

Le Lay discussed the situation in an interview with the France Info website, stating a rights deal is expected to cost around €130m ($161.7m). He said: “What is true is that we are a natural broadcaster of the Olympic Games and since the public-service exists, it has always broadcast the Olympic Games. 

“We are a natural candidate for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Other television groups are interested. If there has to be several to broadcast the event, it's quite feasible.”

France Télévisions is the long-standing Olympics rights partner in France, although commercial broadcaster TF1 did broadcast part of the 1996 Games in Atlanta and the opening and closing ceremonies from London 2012.