The French football league, the Ligue de Football Professionnel, today confirmed that CFoot, the league’s digital-terrestrial pay-television channel, will close at the end of the 2011-12 football season.
The league announced the closure of the channel, and said it would launch a tender for the rights currently exploited on it, following a board meeting today.
“This decision was taken because of the very bleak prospects for DTT [digital-terrestrial television], the very unfavourable conditions for distributing the channel and the economic crisis, which has not spared French football,” the league said.
“The media rights for Ligue 2 will be back on the market as part of an invitation to tender and the structure [of the tender] will be defined soon.”
The tender for Ligue 2 rights will cover four seasons, from 2012-13 to 2015-16, and will include live rights for all 10 Ligue 2 fixtures per week.
CFoot launched in August 2011. Its main offering is live coverage of nine games per week from Ligue 2, the second tier of French football, with some top-tier Ligue 1 matches broadcast on a delayed basis.