The Ligue Nationale de Rugby, the operator of the Top 14, has opened a new tender for domestic rights to the top division of French rugby union.
The tender encompasses the four seasons from 2019-20 to 2022-23 and comes little over a year since the LNR concluded its rights deals for the current cycle.
In January 2015, pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus acquired Top 14 rights over the four seasons from 2015-16 to 2018-19. In March 2015, the LNR awarded rights of the Top 14 final to Canal Plus and public-service broadcaster France Télévisions over the same four seasons.
In a statement, the LNR said the new tender has been launched to address the “need for visibility” of Top 14 clubs, linked in particular to July’s implementation of a new strategic plan for the period 2016 to 2023 and the “recent developments” in the domestic sports broadcast sector.
In February, Canal Plus confirmed it had agreed a five-year deal, from 2016 to 2020, to become the exclusive carriage partner in France for rival pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports’ channels. French media group Vivendi had been pursuing the exclusive carriage deal in an effort to safeguard Canal Plus, which has lost sports rights since the emergence of beIN Sports in France.
The LNR has issued tender documents today (Monday), with offers expected by May 9. In a statement the organisation added: “Through this tender, LNR aims to allow rugby to strengthen its audiovisual coverage, a major challenge for its further development.”