The Ligue de Football Professionnel, which operates the French football league, has opted to delay launching the sales process for the next cycle of domestic rights for Ligue 1, the country’s top division, until 2018.
French newspaper L'Équipe said that the auction for the rights covering the four seasons from 2020-21 to 2023-24 will take place in the first quarter of 2018.
It was originally thought that the rights would be put on the market before the end of this year, with the LFP keen to take advantage of competition between broadcasters following the introduction of pay-television broadcaster SFR Sport.
However, the report said that the league’s incumbent rights-holders, pay-television broadcasters Canal Plus and beIN Sport, as well as SFR Sport, had asked for the auction to be delayed until 2018.