The Ligue de Football Professionnel, the French football league, has agreed four-year deals with pay-television broadcaster Al Jazeera and Eurosport France, the French arm of pan-regional broadcaster Eurosport, for the domestic rights to Ligue 2, France’s second tier league, from 2012-13 to 2015-16.
Al Jazeera will broadcast nine matches per week on its beIN Sport 1 and beIN Sport 2 channels, including the first-pick match, showing eight matches on Friday evenings at 6.45pm, and the ninth match on Saturday afternoons at 2pm.
Al Jazeera was forced to compromise with the 6.45pm Friday evening kick-off time from its initial request for 6pm starts, after the clubs refused to accept the new time slot.
Eurosport will show its second-pick match on Monday nights at 8.30pm.
According to L’Équipe, Al Jazeera will pay €12 million ($15.1 million) per year for its package of rights, while Eurosport will pay €6 million ($7.56 million) per season.
Meanwhile, there is growing speculation that pay-television operator Canal Plus will agree a deal to carry Al Jazeera’s beIN Sport channels. Until recently the pay-television rivals have been engaged in a stand-off over Al Jazeera’s demands for a minimum guarantee per subscriber. Reports suggest that Al Jazeera will reduce its demands and that a carriage deal is near completion.
ARTICLE UPDATED ON 28 JUNE 2012 – AL JAZEERA FIGURE CHANGED FROM €12 MILLION OVER FOUR YEARS TO €12 MILLION PER YEAR