Canal+ clinches Formula E deal
August 15, 2014
By Colin Mann
French pay-TV operator Canal+ is to televise live coverage of all races in the new all-electric FIA Formula E Championship for the next three seasons.
In a deal brokered by international media company MP & Silva, Canal+ will have exclusive broadcasting rights for live races covering the entire French region, along with Andorra and Monaco. In addition, it will air a delayed highlights programme reviewing the Formula E action together with pre-race build up, podium celebrations and driver interviews.
Ali Russell, Formula E’s Director of Media, said the series wanted to ensure audiences around the world could watch the championship and the latest agreement further strengthened its global outreach alongside existing deals with FOX Sports, China’s CCTV, ITV in the UK and Japan’s TV Asahi. “We also still have more deals to announce before the opening race in Beijing on September 13,” he revealed.
Cyril Linette, Canal+ Group Sports Director, described the series as a great opportunity to create a new and exciting live TV show for its subscribers, as it already did with Formula One and the World Rally Championship.
Canal+ has a current estimated household reach of six million homes and joins previously announced broadcasters FOX Sports, TV Asahi, ITV4 and CCTV who have all committed to showing live coverage of Formula E races.
The FOX Sports deal alone covers 88 territories around the world and a potential global audience of 180 million households, whilst TV Asahi boasts a household reach of 51.4 million. ITV4 is available to almost 26.2 million homes in the UK with an estimated weekly audience of 10.6 million.
CCTV-5 is the main sports channel in the People’s Republic of China and part of the China Central Television (CCTV) network. CCTV is also the principal state broadcaster in mainland China with a network of 45 channels – the largest number of television sub-channels in the world – and a potential reach of more than 200 million people.
Further TV rights deals will be announced in the coming weeks.