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American football is making its return to French airwaves with an unprecedented setup. The L'Équipe group is once again the official broadcaster of the NFL for the 2026-2027 season, and it is not alone: France Télévisions is joining the fray to cover the international games played in Paris and London. The agreement, signed for three seasons, marks a turning point in the exposure of the sport from across the Atlantic in France.
L'Équipe had already broadcast the NFL between 2020 and 2023, attracting a loyal audience around Sunday night matchups and the playoffs. After an interlude on M6+ during the 2024 season, the Amaury group is reclaiming the rights and expanding its setup. The channel will offer one game per week on free-to-air during the regular season, the playoffs, and Super Bowl LXI, scheduled for February 7, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
L'Équipe had already broadcast the NFL between 2020 and 2023, attracting a loyal audience around Sunday night matchups and the playoffs.
France TV, the surprise guest of the setup
The arrival of France Télévisions is the real novelty of this agreement. The public broadcaster will not air the regular season but will focus on two highly anticipated events: the Paris Game, which will see the New England Patriots face the Jacksonville Jaguars at the Parc des Princes on October 18, and the London Game, whose matchup is yet to be specified. These two games will benefit from free exposure on France 3 or France 4, mechanically broadening the potential audience well beyond subscribers to sports channels.
This two-pronged strategy responds to a logic embraced by the American league. The NFL wants to establish its presence in Europe and considers France a priority market after the United Kingdom and Germany. The 2025 Paris Game at the Stade de France, which attracted seventy thousand spectators, convinced league executives to continue the effort. The involvement of France TV offers a much wider sounding board than that of a thematic channel. For the French viewer, it guarantees seeing American football without spending a single euro.
Complementary coverage on DAZN and beIN
Beyond the L'Équipe-France TV duo, the French NFL landscape remains fragmented. DAZN retains the rights to nearly all regular-season games via its digital subscription. beIN Sports, for its part, remains the historic broadcaster of the NCAA college championship and could offer a few NFL games as a complement. French fans therefore benefit from an unprecedented range of choices, even if the dispersion of rights forces them to multiply subscriptions to follow the entire season.
The NFL and DAZN had signed a ten-year global agreement in 2023 for Game Pass International, the league's direct streaming platform. This framework agreement does not prevent local variations: in France, the sharing between L'Équipe, France TV, and DAZN illustrates a desire to reach both the general public and aficionados. A winning strategy on paper, provided that audiences follow.
A timely event
The return of the NFL to L'Équipe comes at a favorable time. The 2026 World Cup has just ended in the United States with unprecedented fervor, and the appetite of the French public for American sports has never been stronger. Super Bowl audiences have been steadily rising for five years. The number of flag football licensees has tripled in France since the discipline was added to the Olympic program for Los Angeles 2028. Regional federations are struggling to absorb the demand, a sign of an enthusiasm that goes beyond a mere fad.
The regular season will begin on September 10 with the traditional opening game of the defending champion. For French fans, the countdown has begun: all they need to do is turn on L'Équipe or France TV to thrill to the rhythm of touchdown drives and field goals. A small revolution for a sport long confined to premium subscriptions.