Hand(le) with care: Canal+ discusses championship workflow
Currently taking place in Spain, the latest Handball World Championship is enjoying a high profile in France, thanks in no small part to the recent strong performance by the French national team that has seen it attain world champion status four times and Olympic double champion status twice.
In addition to the World and European championships, the Canal+ group broadcasts the First Division French championship, the League Cup and the Champions Trophy. Handball’s importance to Canal+ has been further underlined in recent months by a statement from its sports director, Cyril Linette, that the broadcaster intends to make handball its third top sport following football and rugby.
Outlining its workflow for the current championship, Canal+ director of sports production François-Charles Bideaux comments: “We use two sorts of equipment [set-ups] that vary according to the importance of the match and the channel that airs it. The First Division match broadcast on a Thursday evening on Canal+ Sport is in HD. Eight video cams, including a SuperLoupe system [from DVS] and two LSMs, as well as a graphics palette and a statistics display are used. [Meanwhile] the match broadcast on Saturday on Sport+ is in SD, with six cameras and two LSMs used. For the matches that are managed by the Handball League the sole service provider is Euromedia, whereas for the matches managed by the Federation (French Cup, French team) there is a line producer, Enjoy Productions, which works with AMP VISUAL TV. Note also that for some of the matches featuring the French team, up to 12 cameras may be used.”
beIN Sport, the Qatar-based television channel that was launched in June last year in France, has acquired the rights to broadcast both the men’s Handball Champions League (148 matches) and the women’s (72). The relevant agreement with the European Federation will last until 2017.
In addition, Ma Chaîne Sport, another French sports channel, broadcasts a number of foreign championships.