France Télévisions is to broadcast more than 100 hours of live coverage from this year's Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro ©France Télévisions

More than 100 hours of this year's Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be broadcast live in France following a groundbreaking new deal.

National television broadcaster France Télévisions are to show a live daily show from the Brazilian city during the Games, due to take place between September 7 and 18, on its France 4 and France 2 channels.

It will be broadcast each day in France between 7pm and 4am. 

It will be the first time a French broadcaster has done such a show from the Paralympics and follows criticism of the poor coverage from London 2012.

The only channel which showed daily live action was the little known regional station TV8 Mont Blanc, a station based in the Alps and available to only 70 per cent of the French population.

The situation caused anger among many members of the French team who competed in the Paralympics at London 2012. 

 “We are complete sportsmen and women,” Assia El Hannouni,winner of two Paralympic gold medals at London 2012 in the T12 100 and 200 metres, taking her overall total to eight, told Le Monde newspaper at the time. 

"It is disappointing that the coverage of our performances will be minimal."

Double Paralympic gold medallist Assia El Hannouni was among those who criticised the lack of tlive nationwide elevision coverage in France during London 2012 ©Getty Images
Double Paralympic gold medallist Assia El Hannouni was among those who criticised the lack of tlive nationwide elevision coverage in France during London 2012 ©Getty Images

Most of the criticism was directed at France Télévisions, who had shown 16 hours a day of coverage during the Olympics, attracting record viewing figures. 

They agreed to show a one-hour highlights show from the Paralympics in a primetime slot only after a petition which attracted 17,000 signatures. 

Surveys conducted during the Paralympic Games in London also found that 84 per cent of French people wanted to follow the event on television.

Of that number, 66 per cent wanted to be able to watch it live.

The decision by France Télévisions, who have the rights to broadcast the Olympics in France until Tokyo 2020, may also have been influenced by the fact that Paris are once again bidding for the Olympics and Paralympics. 

The French capital is facing rivals Budapest, Los Angeles and Rome for the right to host the 2024 Games, with the International Olympic Committee due to make a decision at its Session in Lima in 2017. 

The amount of coverage France Télévisions is planning to broadcast from Rio 2016, however, is still only two-thirds of what British broadcaster Channel 4 will show.

They are expected to show more than 150 hours from Rio de Janeiro.