M6, L’Équipe strike French handball rights deals

French commercial broadcaster M6 has acquired a package of rights for the national handball team, while digital-terrestrial television channel L’Équipe has agreed a deal for domestic club competition the Coupe de France.

The Mediasportif.fr website said M6 or its digital-terrestrial channel W9 will broadcast between one and three games featuring France during the Euro 2018 men’s national team tournament, which takes place in Croatia from January 12-28.

Under the sublicensing deal with rights-holder, pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports, M6 or W9 will broadcast one game from the second phase of the competition, along with the semi-final and final, if France progresses that far.

In a separate deal, W9 will broadcast two of France’s games from the Golden League, a warm-up tournament for the Euros which will take place in Bercy from January 4-8. BeIN also holds full rights to the tournament and W9 will televise France’s games against Egypt on January 6 and Denmark on January 7.

Meanwhile, L'Équipe has secured a three-season deal to broadcast the Coupe de France. The agreement covers both the men’s and women’s competition and runs from 2017-18 to 2019-20. BeIN had previously held the rights.