France’s National Basketball League (NBL) organizer and its FFBB governing body have announced international streaming service DAZN as the new media rightsholder for the country’s top-tier of domestic basketball, the LNB Elite.
DAZN takes over the rights from the onset of the 2024-25 season through to the end of the 2028-29 campaign, a five-year term that had originally been awarded to beleaguered streaming platform Skweek.
The OTT service will broadcast eight matches per week from the competition in set broadcast slots from Friday-Sunday through the season, and most importantly secure continued broadcast coverage for the competition’s upcoming season after uncertainty over the Skweek deal.
Skweek secured the rights in collaboration with digital terrestrial channel L’Equipe in 2023, but L’Equipe sought to strip the service of the rights earlier this year and terminate the partnership completely over rights payment issues.
Fedcom Group, a conglomerate owned by Russian-born Hungarian-Monegasque businessman Alexey Fedorychev who operates in Ukraine, owns Skweek, and has seen his business impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine which in turn hampered rights payments.
In a statement, Skweek confirmed that it would no longer be serving as LNB Elite's broadcaster, stating that it had elected not to participate in the tender for the media rights it had previously held.
Skweek did confirm, however, that it will continue in its stewardship of the French rights to the elite international EuroLeague competition for the next two seasons, and that it was solely divesting from its LNB Elite rights.
LNB president Philippe Ausseur stated of the new rightsholder DAZN: “We are delighted to find a form of stability, with programming adapted for our clubs and their supporters but also to allow all fans to benefit from the expertise of DAZN, a sports platform that has become a benchmark in the world of content."
DAZN’s existing slate of basketball rights includes the US’ iconic NBA in Germany and Belgium, the WNBA in the DACH countries, the EuroLeague, EuroCup, and Italy’s Basketball Serie A in Italy.
