Public-service broadcaster France Télévisions has pulled out of broadcasting a game between Lens and Bordeaux tonight (Wednesday) in the Coupe de France domestic knockout football tournament, according to French newspaper l’Equipe.
France Télévisions originally planned to show the match at 5pm before broadcasting another game from the competition, Evian v Paris Saint-German, later in the evening. However, after objections from Lens and its fans about the early kick-off time, which would have led to a lower-than-normal attendance, the game was switched by the Fédération Française de Football, the national governing body, to a later start time of 7pm, and France Télévisions has said it can no longer show the match.
The game is now set to be unavailable on the television or the internet, with the reported €100,000 ($130,000) cost of streaming the game online unlikely to have generated a positive return on investment, the newspaper added.
“We chose to focus on the people who come to the stadium rather than broadcast television,” Lens president Luc Dayan said.