Canal+ pays top dollar for Top 14
Pay-TV broadcaster to pay €74m annually for rights to show top-flight French rugby for next four years
TOP-FLIGHT rugby clubs in France have just become a little bit better off, after the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) announced that pay-TV broadcaster Canal+ has retained the broadcast rights to the Top 14 in a deal worth €74m annually for four years.
The €296m contract replaces a previous five-year agreement worth €71m annually.
That deal, signed early last year, was overturned in October after rival pay-TV sports broadcaster beIN Sport contested the agreement in court, and forced the LNR to invite new bids for the rights.
The LNR said: "This new partnership is for a sum which will allow the Top 14 to continue to grow and consolidate its status as the most attractive in the world."
Canal+ will show three matches each weekend on its main channels, while the other four will be broadcast on its pay-per-view Rugby+ stations. It will also broadcast two magazine programmes a week - the popular highlights show Jour du Rugby and a new Sunday evening magazine.
The deal gives Canal+ the rights to regular season matches, and the play-off quarter-finals and semi-finals. But it does not include broadcast rights for the Top 14 final. The LNR said that it had received several offers from pay-TV and free-to-air broadcasters and would announce its decision after considering all the bids.
It also said that it would enter into discussions with all broadcasters who had bid for the right to broadcast the second-tier ProD2 from next season. It said that all bids would enhance and improve coverage of the ProD2 in France.
As well the Top 14 in France, Canal+ also holds the rights to Super Rugby, Rugby Championship and the France internationals in the southern hemisphere, and has also reportedly agreed a deal with free-to-air broadcaster TF1 to show some of this year’s Rugby World Cup matches.
According to reports, Canal+ bid €20m to show 27 of the 48 matches in the tournament in summer. It is similar to the TF1/beIN sports deal for last year’s football World Cup in Brazil.
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