Jérôme Saporito (L'Equipe channel): The 24 Hours of Le Mans is our World Cup final!

2024-01-17 19:55:24

It was called L’Equipe TV then L’Equipe 21. Today it is called the L’Equipe channel and it has just successfully celebrated its 25th anniversary with ever more live sport on its channel. If the L’Equipe channel has driven a dynamic of acquiring new rights in recent years, this trajectory is particularly true when it comes to motorsport. To better understand this strategy, Sportsmarketing met Jérôme Saporito, director of the Chaîne L’Equipe.

Bruno Cammalleri: Formula E, Dakar, WEC, motorcycles… in recent years the L’Equipe channel has broadcast more and more motorsport, and motorsport overall, with the acquisition of new competitions. Why did the L’Equipe channel choose to invest in the circuits?

Jérôme Saporito : Motorsport has a superb locomotive which is Formula 1. It takes with it the entire ecosystem of motorsport. We will not be able to afford F1, it is not our economic model and that does not matter. On the other hand, there are plenty of motor sports and categories, on 4 wheels as well as 2 wheels, which are just as interesting. In any case, we are interested in it. This F1 showcase allowed us to highlight motor sports. Motorsport is a sport in keeping with the times: there is a real appetite among young people, we see it in our studies, and the public remains quite mixed. More mixed than you think. We are a free-to-air channel, so we must listen to the wishes of our viewers. Besides, there’s more than just football in life! We took an overview of what existed and what we could afford. Then we took our pilgrim’s staff to try to convince everyone to give us the opportunity to disseminate these disciplines.

Bruno Cammalleri: Last Saturday, Formula E season 10 began in Mexico and the Team has just announced a three-year extension of its partnership with Formula E. Why did the L’Equipe channel choose to broadcast this championship which is also broadcast by Eurosport?

Jérôme Saporito : Because the competition has become structured, because Formula E invents new codes and because electric motorsport is taking up more and more space. There is a French manufacturer which is DS and 3 French drivers: Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske), Norman Nato (Andretti) and Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan). This French connotation is something important for us in our choice to broadcast Formula E, without forgetting the legendary Monaco event on the calendar. Throughout the season we will take a special look at the team DS Penskebecause we know the DS brand well and because we would like to support Jean-Eric Vergne, already a double champion, in his quest for a third title.

Bruno Cammalleri : What about Formula E audiences?

Jérôme Saporito : It’s an audience to build. Formula E was in the shadow of Formula 1, but Formula E has 10 years of history compared to almost 74 for F1. At the L’Equipe channel we know who we are. We are a free sports channel that offers an alternative to the behemoths that are the large general channels, Canal+ or beIN SPORTS. We have to dig our furrow and we try to find stories that we like to tell and we build the audience this way, together with the promoter Formula E. The audiences are there but are increasing from year to year. It’s up to us to build and we’re going to put more resources on site this year to make the story even stronger and be closer to the DS team.

Bruno Cammalleri: Regarding journalists and consultants, who will we find in this season 10 of Formula E?

Jérôme Saporito : We are leaving this season with Mylène Dorange, Messaoud Benterki, Paul Petit, Adrien Paviot, also with other faces on certain races. We have built a team and we continue around this team. We will try to be even more present on the ground, especially when the E-Prix takes place in Europe.

Bruno Cammalleri: L’Equipe announced at the end of December 2023 “that at least 11 races out of 17 and 9 qualifying sessions of season 10 of the Formula E World Championship will be broadcast live on the linear channel of L’Équipe”, on remains being broadcast on L’Equipe live. How do you decide between broadcasting on the linear channel and L’Equipe live?

Jérôme Saporito : We do not referee, in the sense that the entire competition and qualifications will be broadcast on L’Equipe live and commented on by our specialists. A Formula E enthusiast will be able to follow all the qualifications and all the E-Prixes live on the Live Team. And as soon as possible, as soon as there is space, the L’Equipe channel will host the E-Prix live or slightly delayed. We have one constraint on the L’Equipe channel which is that we have only one channel. On some weekends there may be a traffic jam of events. Everything will be visible, the fans will see everything, and we don’t want to make a choice because choosing is giving up.

Bruno Cammalleri: You also announced last December that the 24 Hours of Le Mans would continue on the L’Équipe channel until 2025. If the 24 Hours event is the legendary event par excellence, have you managed to build loyalty the public on the other rounds of the WEC calendar?

Jérôme Saporito : We are starting and we will accelerate even more on this. For me, the 24 Hours of Le Mans will remain our World Cup final! The remaining 7 rounds of the WEC must be the 7 matches that take us to the World Cup Final. We are going to invest more presence on sites. We are planning a presence of our team at each round of the WEC (Qatar, Imola, Spa, Le Mans, Sao Paulo, Austin, Fuji and Sakhir) to bring the grid climbs to life as soon as possible (this will depend on the time constraints on the antenna) and live. The entire round will be on L’Equipe live, sometimes the entire round on the L’Equipe channel, sometimes the last hours on the channel. We are going to juggle according to the calendar and everything is not finalized: the WEC has delivered its 2024 calendar until the end of the season, but several other sports have not yet communicated it. Overall, we must remember that our wish is to accelerate in the WEC to make the 24 Hours of Le Mans even more beautiful.

Bruno Cammalleri: Are you already able to draw up an assessment for the first Dakar on the L’Equipe channel?

Jérôme Saporito : The results are fantastic, we’re having a blast! Today I stayed glued to the antenna for 2 hours to follow Sébastien Loeb who arrives at noon, saying that he had a very difficult day and waiting to know if he is in front or behind Carlos Sainz who himself is arriving 10 minutes later. It’s a new way of writing that we’re trying to bring to the L’Equipe channel with this live side. We wanted to restore the urgency of watching the Dakar and experiencing it live. We experience and offer some pretty incredible moments on the Dakar and the drivers are very open to answering us. The audiences are there: we are practically at 600,000 viewers on average every evening on the big summary. We shoot between 100,000 and 200,000 live. On the Dakar we have an audience to build, this is the first year that we are broadcasting it. We take incredible pleasure in putting the urgency back into watching the Dakar. Messaoud Benterki, France Pierron, Mylène Dorange and all the teams are doing fantastic work around this iconic brand. We are trying at our level to re-enchant the Dakar!

Bruno Cammalleri: The L’Equipe channel has just celebrated its 25th anniversary. How do you plan for the future?

Jérôme Saporito : The perspectives are beautiful to experience. We have just completed the 25th anniversary and we are embarking on the Dakar which is a total beauty. There are still plenty of stories like this to be experienced. I don’t know yet where this will lead us. 3 months before the Dakar I didn’t know that we would broadcast the Dakar! We still have great emotions to bring to the viewers’ attention. We have passion deep within us, we have a passion for our profession and a passion to pass it on.