French firm Free to show Ligue 1 soccer championship until end of season

French telecoms operator Free, a subsidiary of Iliad, said on Tuesday it would continue to show France's Ligue 1 soccer games on smartphones until the end of the season, despite TV rights not having been reallocated for the time being.

French telecoms operator Free, a subsidiary of Iliad, said on Tuesday it would continue to show France's Ligue 1 soccer games on smartphones until the end of the season, despite TV rights not having been reallocated for the time being. France's LFP soccer body failed to reallocate the television rights for the country's top two domestic leagues on Monday as no bidder offered the expected price.

The LFP won back those rights last December from Spanish media rights agency Mediapro, which operates soccer channel Telefoot, following a dispute over the payments under the deal. "The offer has been a great success and is now being extended until the end of the 2020/2021 season, to enable a constantly growing number of fans to discover the wealth of content associated with the service", Free said in a statement.