French pay-television broadcasters beIN Sports and Canal Plus, along with commercial broadcaster M6, have entered bids for the rights to the Uefa Champions League club football competitions from 2015-16 to 2017-18, with the process moving to a second round of bidding, according to L’Equipe.
The French newspaper said Team Marketing, the agency handling the sale of the rights on behalf of Uefa, can expect to receive bids that increase the value of the French Champions League rights by at least 20 per cent.
Canal Plus and beIN Sports are the current rights-holders to the Champions League, paying annual fees of €50m ($69m) and €61m respectively.
Uefa, football’s European governing body, launched the rights sales processes in France for the Champions League and Europa League at the beginning of March.
Bids were due to be submitted by April 7. The Champions League package runs for three seasons, from 2015-16 to 2017-18, and includes four editions of the annual Super Cup match between the winners of the previous season’s Champions League and Europa League, from 2015 to 2018.
The rights package for the Europa League will run for the same three-year period, from 2015-16 to 2017-18. L’Equipe said this tender will be discussed at a later date.