By Stuart Thomson

Spanish broadcaster and producer Mediapro has secured carriage for its French premium sports channel Téléfoot with Free. The agreement means that the service, which holds the rights to the lion’s share of Ligue 1 and 2 matches for the next four season, now has distribution deals in place with three of the country’s four major ISPs. The broadcaster earlier struck deals with Altice France/SFR and, most recently, Bouygues Telecom.

Free will distribute Téléfoot on its Freebox service to its ADSL and fibre broadband customers. Freebox customers will be able to view the premium Téléfoot channel and subsidiary Téléfoot Stadium channels, giving them access to Ligue 1 and 2 matches, the UEFA Europea League and – courtesy of Mediapro’s deal with Altice France’s RMC Sport – the UEFA Champions League for the forthcoming season only.

Freebox subscribers will also be able to watch Friday and Sunday evening matches in 4K UHD on the Téléfoot 4K channel.

Freebox subscribers will be able to sign up for the various Téléfoot packages, including the service’s bundled offer with Netflix.

Free’s addition of Téléfoot to its programming line-up comes after the operator unveiled its own Ligue 1 app – Free Ligue 1 Uber Eats – which provides access to highlights in near real time on the Freebox and via mobile.

Free’s offering, based on a separate highlights package it acquired, is available on smartphones and on the Player Freebox for TV viewing – the latter being available to its s Freebox Pop, Freebox Delta, Freebox One, Freebox Révolution/Révolution avec TV by Canal and Freebox mini 4K subscribers.

Subscribers will receive notifications on their smarthphone of goals and other highlghts, enabling them to link to the highlight video.

The app will also feature compilations of goals and highlight moments from games, along with magazine content, interviews and podcasts.    https://www.digitaltveurope.com