Although it is gaining momentum with the acquisition of numerous sports rights, La Chaîne L'Equipe still lags behind TNT in terms of audiences. The planned disappearances of C8 and NRJ12 could help it finally develop.
In 2024, watching sport for free on French television is sometimes a fantasy. Many sports and their competitions have been taken over by paying players Canal+, DAZN, beIN Sports or RMC Sport in recent years. In this context, La Chaine L'Equipe acts as a lifeline for less fortunate viewers. It offers an increasingly extensive catalog, particularly in terms of football: Nations League, Serie A, German Cup, Spanish Cup, Italian Cup, U21 Cup. The matches continue on channel 21 of TNT. But the most popular sport on the planet does not significantly boost the audiences of the channel owned by the Amaury Group.
L'Equipe aims for number 8 of TNT
In an audience ranking dominated by TF1 for more than 30 years, L'Equipe is rather around 15th place with less than 2% audience share. This lower visibility is often explained by the numbering of TNT channels. The higher a channel has a figure, the more it struggles to attract the French public. Located on 21 since its arrival on TNT in 2012, L'Equipe has finally found the opportunity to gain popularity.
According to information from Parisianit wishes to recover the numbers left vacant by C8 and NRJ 12 which lost their TNT frequencies by decision of Arcom. The French television regulatory authority has just received a letter from La Chaine L'Equipe to take over number 8 or number 12 on the new TNT list. This approach is motivated by the fact that Arcom wants to group the news channels LCI, France Info, BFM TV and CNews in an “info” block from 13 to 16. We will now see if L'Equipe's request will be approved while several million euros are at stake between the different media groups.
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