Final whistle for Orange sport channel

Pascale Paoli-Lebailly | 08-03-2012

French telco Orange has announced to its board the definitive closure, in the coming weeks, of in-house sport channel Orange Sport which boasts 400,000 subscribers.

Some reports in the French press suggest that the channel could be switched off as early as 20 May as Orange looks to sell its rights to ATP tennis rights to potential prospective purchasers such as Al-Jazeera or Canal+.

For some time, Orange has been trying to ink a deal with potential buyers or partners in a similar way to its dealings with Canal+ Group for its cinema series channel. However nothing has come out of discussions, neither with French nor foreign groups such as ESPN.