Canal+ retains rugby Top 14 rights

Canal+ has retained the rights to exclusive live coverage of French rugby matches from the Top 14 teams. 

Canal+ has secured from the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) the rights to the entirety of tournament rights, including live coverage of seven matches each day of the tournament, the final stages of the competition and weekly magazine programme Jour de Rugby, for the four seasons from this year until 2019.

The deal with the LNR follows yesterday’s announcement that Canal+ and commercial broadcaster TF1 had struck a deal to share rights to the Rugby World Cup this year.

Canal+ originally secured rights to the Top 14 last year but the French competition regulator ruled that the process was flawed as the LNR and the pay TV operator had negotiated a contract privately in a way that excluded bids from possible competitors – notably Al Jazeera-backed BeIN Sports.