France Télévisions bets heavily on the Six Nations

After the game was postponed at the last minute due to a frozen pitch, a date has finally been agreed on for the France-Ireland clash, which has been rescheduled for Sunday, March 4. As the historic broadcaster of the Six Nations, the French public television broadcasting group has decided once again this year to use all means necessary to broadcast the home games – both those on-schedule and those delayed by bad weather.

“Our aim is to constantly innovate and offer the best possible entertainment to our viewers,” proudly declared Frédéric Godard, sports producer and in particular for Rugby games.

“For the Heineken Cup and the Amlin Challenge Cup events we have about 12 cameras at our disposal. For the Six Nations we will be using 20 in all. Cranes and steadycams will of course be used, as well as two units placed below the 22m line for an improved immersive experience. We will also be using a cable-mounted moving camera starting at a height of 40m from outside the stadium and reaching over to one of the sides of the pitch where it will be lowered down to 25m (the minimum distance allowed by the Six Nations Committee),” he added. 8 slow motion systems will also be used.

But Frédéric Godard also wished to emphasise the fact that for this season a lot of work has gone into improving the quality of sound recordings. “In order to reproduce the particular environment of a rugby game it seemed interesting to isolate and accentuate the sounds as well as possible, not only the ambient sounds but also what the players say to each other on the pitch. Sound is an essential element and we would like to concentrate our efforts on further improving its quality during production.”

OB units belonging to the France 3 Lyon television channel will be used for the TV production of the French team’s games.

France Télévisions recently renewed its agreement with the Six Nations Committee to air the championship tournament until 2017. The broadcasting group will thereby continue being the exclusive broadcaster of this sporting event in France for the next six editions of the Championship and has secured the rights to cover all media platforms (television, mobiles, internet).

Moreover, it is worth noting that the France 4 television channel will be broadcasting for the very first time, the Women’s Championship game between France and England taking place on March 11 at the Charléty Stadium in Paris.