Since 2005, MMA was absent from French television channels.
This is the end of this ban, even if the Superior council of audio-visual will supervise its diffusion.
MMA means Mixed Martial Arts: in French, mixed martial arts.
It is a combat sport that the French channels will now be able to broadcast, following the agreement given by the CSA, the Superior council of audio-visual.
The French MMA Federation announced it on Twitter on Wednesday.
Admittedly, a channel was already broadcasting MMA on its antenna, RMC Sport 4, which had found a trick: it was broadcasting the signal from Luxembourg.
No need for this kind of ploy anymore.
The French MMA Federation will soon indicate under what conditions its events will be broadcast.
The CSA will supervise its distribution
MMA being a violent sport, the CSA will supervise its diffusion.
According to the newspaper
L'Equipe
, the retransmission will therefore be discouraged from those under 16.
And free channels will be banned from broadcasting these meetings before 10:30 p.m.
A restriction that will not apply to paid channels and platforms, which will be able to offer MMA from 8:30 p.m.
This green light given by the CSA comes 15 years after its decision to ban this discipline on the air.
In 2005, the Superior Audiovisual Council ruled that this sport “undermined the dignity of the participants”, that it was “likely to seriously harm the physical, mental or moral development of minors” and even that it was “contrary to the safeguard of public order”!