Canal+ clinches Formula E deal

French pay-TV operator Canal+ is to televise live coverage of all races in the new all-electric FIA Formula E Championship for the next three seasons.

Canal+ has a current estimated household reach of six million homes and joins previously announced broadcasters FOX Sports, TV Asahi, ITV4 and CCTV who have all committed to showing live coverage of Formula E races.

According to Advanced Television, the FOX Sports deal alone covers 88 territories around the world and a potential global audience of 180 million households, whilst TV Asahi boasts a household reach of 51.4 million. ITV4 is available to almost 26.2 million homes in the UK with an estimated weekly audience of 10.6 million and the giant CCTV network has a potential reach of more than 200 million people.

Ali Russell, Formula E’s Director of Media, said the series wanted to ensure audiences around the world could watch the championship and the latest agreement further strengthened its global outreach alongside existing deals with FOX Sports, China’s CCTV, ITV in the UK and Japan’s TV Asahi. “We also still have more deals to announce before the opening race in Beijing on September 13,” he revealed.