Altice chooses its own channel for FTA Champions League final

Altice France has chosen to air the final of this year’s Champions League football competition on its own news channel BFMTV rather than sub-license the rights to another free-to-view broadcaster, according to local reports.

According to Le Parisien, BFMTV will show the match live from Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano stadium.

Under French law, the final of the Champions League tournament must be aired on free TV. Altice, which owns the rights to the competition and has aired it on its RMC Sport pay TV offering, has decided to forego revenues from sublicensing the rights in favour of airing it on its own channel.

The final was traditionally broadcast by TF1 and more recently by Canal+ via its free-to-air service, C8.

Altice has aired some matches from the Europa League, to which it also holds the rights. Via its RMC Story channel, which is also free-to-air.