Good news for the fans.
French basketball is making a comeback: the L'Equipe channel will broadcast matches from the Elite championship, as well as women's matches and the Coupe de France finals, according to an agreement unveiled on Tuesday.
This “big comeback” was jointly announced by the channel, the National Basketball League (LNB) and the French Basketball Federation (FFBB).
According to a press release, L'Equipe will broadcast the best Elite poster every Monday at 9 p.m., and will schedule an additional match for each day of competition, when its grid allows.
In all, it will offer "at least 40 matches over the entire season" (regular days and play-offs), broadcast for free, unheard of since the birth of the LNB in 1987. A match will also be broadcast every Saturday at 8 p.m. on the L'Équipe website and app.
The channel will also offer posters of the LFB (women's championship), and the men's and women's French Cup finals.
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This is "very good news for all those, and there are many, who follow the competitions of one of the most popular French sports", underlined Jean-Louis Pelé, boss of the L'Equipe group.
“Together, we are giving basketball the exposure it deserves and that fans have been asking for for a long time,” added Alain Béral, his LNB counterpart.
"It is a voluntary choice on our part, there were other options", added Jean-Pierre Siutat, his counterpart from the FFBB.
The championship had been broadcast for five years by the Altice group (via My sports channel then RMC Sport).
Previously, French basketball had long been broadcast on Canal +, as well as on France Télévisions and Eurosport, and on a much smaller scale on L'Equipe.
The 2019-2020 season, shortened due to the Covid-19, had ended without a winner.
The amount of rights acquired by L'Equipe has not been disclosed.
Has it decreased, while RMC Sport has withdrawn and seen the context linked to Covid-19?
“Everyone has found their interest,” Jérôme Saporito, director of the channel, commented to AFP.
This agreement, which will begin on September 25 with the first match of the season between Dijon and Asvel, is valid for 2020/2021, but "we want to be part of the duration", he assured.
This new pillar in the team grid will be added to the sports already covered by the chain, such as cycling, biathlon and football, he argues.
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