Free-to-air commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6 and pay-television broadcasters Canal Plus and beIN Sport are the broadcasters in the running to acquire Formula One rights in France in the next cycle, according to L’Équipe.
The broadcasters each submitted a bid for the rights, which cover the three seasons from 2013 to 2015, by the September 7 bidding deadline.
L’Équipe said Canal Plus made an “aggressive” bid of €30 million ($39 million) per season. TF1, the current rights-holder, is reported to pay $40 million per season at present. TF1’s deal covers the 2008 to 2012 seasons.
BeIN Sport, which is owned by Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera, is reported to be in a weak position in the bidding because it would struggle to show all races live due to a scheduling clash with its French Ligue 1 football coverage. BeIN Sport shows a live match from Ligue 1 each Sunday at 2pm, which would clash with some Formula One races.
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, a mixture of free-to-air and pay-television coverage of Formula One along the lines of coverage in the UK and Italy in the latest rights deals is expected in the cycle beginning in 2013, according to newspaper De Telegraaf.
Current rights-holder RTL, the free-to-air commercial broadcaster, is reported to be unwilling to renew its fully exclusive live rights for the series. Formula One Management, the series’ rights-holder, is in talks with pay-television broadcaster Sport1 about acquiring rights for live coverage of most races. De Telegraaf reports that some races may still be shown live on a free-to-air channel under a deal that would run alongside the Sport1 deal.
Formula One Management split exclusive live race coverage between pay-television and free-to-air broadcasters in the UK and Italy in deals agreed in the two markets in the last year and a half. This signalled a strategy shift by the rights holder away from its traditional insistence on live free-to-air coverage in major European markets for all races.