L’Équipe Drops Pro A Basketball Broadcasts After Disappointing Viewership Numbers

In Aug. ’15, the French National Basketball League (LNB) “attributed the rights of the top-tier Pro A league to SFR” until ’20, and the contract included a sub-license of 12 live matches to be shown on l’Équipe 21 “to give the competition a larger audience,” according to MEDIA SPORTIF. One year later, “things have changed.” The 12 matches that were broadcast “were not a success.” L’Équipe General Dir Cyril Linette confirmed through his Twitter account that the sports channel “will no longer broadcast Pro A basketball this year.” He said that the irregular broadcasts prevented the channel from “creating an identifiable returning audience.” The last broadcast on May 9 “only drew 113,000 viewers for a 0.6% market share.” SFR Sport will now become the “exclusive broadcaster of the Pro A championship this season” (MEDIA SPORTIF, 9/1).