Laurent Eichinger, the chief executive of RMC Sport, is leaving his position less than 12 months after joining the Altice-owned subscription broadcaster.
The announcement of his exit was expected to be made to the broadcaster’s editorial team this afternoon, according to L’Équipe.
Eichinger replaced François Pesenti as RMC Sport’s chief executive in March last year.
However, RMC Sport has undergone a turbulent period, losing rights to the Uefa Champions League and Europa League from 2021-22 onwards. The loss has called into question Altice’s appetite for premium sports rights in a competitive French marketplace.
Eichinger, who joined RMC Sport from his role as director general of French equestrian channel Equidia, has overseen the broadcaster’s team of around 200 journalists and 50 analysts. Between 2014 and 2016, Eichinger was the director of thematic sports channels at pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus.
Pesenti moved on in the wake of Altice’s takeover of the NextRadioTV media group.
RMC Sport is thought to be in talks over the potential sub-licensing of the final season of its contract for the Uefa club competitions. It currently pays €350m ($385.9m) per season for the exclusive rights from 2018-19 to 2020-21 to both the Champions League and Europa League.
Altice did enter into a Premier League rights sharing agreement with Canal Plus in May 2019. The Vivendi-owned broadcaster initially secured the rights from 2019-20 to 2021-22 in a deal worth just over €90m per year.