French digital-terrestrial television channel L’Équipe 21 has dropped coverage of the domestic Pro A men’s top-tier basketball league for the 2016-17 season.
In August 2015, L’Équipe 21 was awarded rights to 12 games per season under a sublicensing deal with telecommunications company SFR-Numericable, which has rights to the league through to 2020.
Cyril Linette, director general of the channel’s parent company, L’Equipe, said that the channel had struggled to generate sufficient audiences for its coverage due to illegal broadcasts of the league last season.
Linette said that audiences dropped as low as 113,000 for coverage of the league.
SFR-Numericable is therefore set to show exclusive coverage of the league during the 2016-17 season.