The Team Marketing agency set a deadline of February 10 for a third round of bidding in the tender for the rights in France for the Uefa Europa League football tournament for the three years from 2012-13 to 2014-15, according to l’Equipe.
Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus and commercial channel M6, the current rights-holders in two separate deals, submitted a joint bid in the first round, in November, and second round, in December.
Canal Plus and M6 are facing competition from Qatari pay-television broadcaster Al Jazeera, which is looking to add to the Uefa Champions League and French Ligue 1 rights it acquired earlier this year and last year. Al Jazeera is launching two sports pay-television channels in France this year.
M6 pays about €5 million ($6.6 million) per year in the current cycle, from 2009-10 to 2011-12, for free-to-air rights for the first-choice match each week and a magazine programme. Canal Plus pays about €2.75 million per year in the cycle for pay-television rights for the remaining matches.
The start of the old deal coincided with the rebranding of the competition from the ‘Uefa Cup’ in 2009.
Team Marketing is selling the rights on behalf of Uefa, football’s governing body in Europe.