The 2019 World Cup and the Euro 2022 women's football tournament have recorded very good audiences. Last year, the semi-final between France and Germany during the Euro had fascinated 6.23 million viewers on TF1.
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No diffuser for Les Bleues
However, the 2023 World Cup, which will be held from July 20 to August 20, has not yet found a broadcaster in France. For now, no one has made an offer to broadcast the event. The cost of fees and the schedules of the matches would be partly the causes of this choice. The competition will take place in Australia and New Zealand, involving the broadcast of the matches around noon. The France is not alone in this. No broadcaster would have positioned itself in Germany, Spain, England and Italy to offer the Women's World Cup on television.
On Wednesday, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra issued a statement in which she and her European counterparts called on the channels and FIFA to reach an agreement for the broadcasting of this meeting: "We, the sports ministers of European countries whose women's national football teams are qualified for the Women's World Cup, ask FIFA and broadcasters to find ways and means of a fair development of the competition".
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France Télévisions does not position itself
Yesterday, at a press conference presenting all the sporting events broadcast this summer on France Télévisions, Laurent-Eric Le Lay, the sports director of the public service, explained why he had not made a proposal to FIFA to broadcast the Women's World Cup on its antennas. "This is an event on which we did not position ourselves when there was the call for tenders last year," he said. The asking price at the time was simply not within our means. We also have an already very busy summer in sporting events. Moreover, sometimes the two events clash since the first match of the women's France football team starts at the same time as the start of the Women's France Tour on Sunday at noon so there is a scheduling conflict. That's why we didn't position ourselves and we didn't plan to acquire it." The sports director said that during the call for tenders, the value of the competition was 15 to 20 million euros. According to him, FIFA still wants more than ten million today.
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M6 or TF1 interested?
Laurent-Éric Le Lay goes on to admit that "the public service could have had an important role to play from the moment there was no free-to-air broadcaster that had positioned itself" before specifying that "according to the press this does not seem to be the case since we saw our colleagues from M6and TF1 declare themselves interested in the event. I hope that the event will eventually be broadcast. Women's football is one of the main areas of development of the sport so I think it will be an important step for this sport. Even so, the fact that the competition is very far away with games in the morning will reduce its media impact in Europe."
On May 15, Nicolas de Tavernost published a message on his Twitter account saying: "The M6 channel reiterates its desire to broadcast the 2023 Women's World Cup at a price consistent with FIFA's decision to organize this competition in the heart of summer at early hours. "
To be continued...