To “significantly improve their visibility”, women’s sport and the Paralympic Games must now be broadcast unencrypted on TV

In addition to the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games, certain major women's sports competitions (football, rugby, cycling, etc.) have been added to the new version of this list. MAXPPP – NICOLAS GOISQUE

The Paralympic Games and the main women's sports competitions are now included on the list of sporting events "of major importance" to be broadcast on a free access television service, according to a decree published in the Official Journal on Saturday.

This list established by a 2004 decree included 21 events, such as the Olympic Games (JO), the opening match, the semi-finals and the final of the Football World Cup, the semi-finals and the final of the European Football Championship, the men's cycling Tour de France, the Six Nations rugby tournament, or even the French Formula 1 Grand Prix, when it takes place.

Its new version, developed jointly by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry responsible for Sports, is enriched with the summer and winter Paralympic Games, matches of the French women's team of football registered on the Fifa calendar, the semi-finals and the final of the Women's Football World Cup, the matches of the French team in the women's Six Nations rugby tournament, the semi-finals and the final of the women's rugby union World Cup or the women's cycling Tour de France.

Allow better visibility for low-profile events

Under this regulation, a pay channel cannot reserve exclusivity for the retransmission of one of these events and national free channels must be able to obtain the rights to do so. retransmission.

Three weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris, this initiative, which has been on the table for several years, aims “to significantly improve the visibility of women's sport , parasport and disciplines little exposed in the audiovisual media", explained Arcom, the audiovisual regulator, in the opinion supporting the decree .

At the level "of women's competitions, the proposed developments appear consistent with the current programming and the growing interest that women's practice arouses among the French public& ;quot;, added the institution.