Romanian pay-TV broadcaster Digi Sport has renewed its domestic rights to French soccer’s Ligue 1 for the next three seasons.
The operator struck a late deal just before the new campaign got underway on Friday and began its coverage with the season-opener between Monaco and Nantes.
The broadcaster’s extended deal will run until the end of the 2023-24 season.
Coverage of the top French league will be shown on the Digi Sport TV channels, with the most important matches made available in UltraHD format on Digi 4K, as well as the Digi Online app and its website.
The Romanian broadcaster showed a total of seven Ligue 1 games over the weekend, including PSG’s 2-1 win over Troyes and Marseille’s dramatic 3-2 comeback victory over Montpellier.
The Ligue 1 deal represents Digi Sport’s third renewal of a major European league in recent weeks after extensions for Germany’s Bundesliga and Spain’s LaLiga.
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By GlobalDataDigi Sport also has rights in Romania to domestic soccer's Liga 1 and Liga 2 competitions and Europe's Uefa Champions League and Europa League.
Meanwhile, BT Sport, the UK pay-TV broadcaster, will increase its coverage of Ligue 1 after losing domestic rights to Germany's Bundesliga last week.
BT Sport, which has held exclusive rights in the UK and Ireland to the Bundesliga since it launched in 2013, was last week replaced as the UK rights-holder by Sky, which secured a deal for the next four years.
As a result, BT Sport is understood to be planning to show more Ligue 1 games to compensate for the loss of the German top-flight.
The pay-TV operator recently signed a three-year renewal to continue showing the French top-tier in the UK and already announced it will be showing more than 200 matches per season.
Interest in Ligue 1 is likely to soar this season with Argentina superstar Lionel Messi widely expected to complete a move to domestic giants Paris Saint-Germain this week.