The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Ligue 1: Mediapro sues Canal + for "abuse of a dominant position"

2020-11-27T23:08:48.548Z


Mediapro believes that Canal + refuses to sign a distribution agreement for its Téléfoot channel in the Canal offers to "try to oust it


New twist in the Mediapro file.

The Sino-Spanish group, which has been broadcasting 80% of Ligue 1 football matches since the start of the school year, has decided to sue Canal + for “abuse of a dominant position” and “abusive and unfair practices”, reveal this Thursday evening our colleagues from Agence France-Presse.

Information confirmed in Le Parisien - Today in France.

The Sino-Spanish group filed a summons last week with the Paris commercial court to ask Canal + for damages.

Mediapro criticizes the encrypted channel for refusing to sign a distribution agreement for its Téléfoot channel to "try to oust it from the French football TV rights market," adds AFP.

Ping-pong in court

Between the two pay channels, tensions have been high since in May 2018 Mediapro won the broadcasting rights for Ligue 1 for the period 2020-2024, for 780 million euros per year.

Since then, Mediapro believes that Canal refuses to sign the agreement which sets the conditions for the marketing of the channel to subscribers of the various Canal offers.

The encrypted channel, a subsidiary of the Vivendi group, has, for its part, already sued Mediapro in September, accusing the Catalan group with Chinese capital of "unequal treatment" compared to the telecom operators (Free, Bouygues, SFR , Orange, etc.).

Big cash flow problems

This showdown with Canal + is far from being the only concern of the Mediapro group.

After paying its first payment to the League in August, Mediapro refused to pay the 172 million euros expected in October.

Jaume Roures, the boss of the group, asked to reduce the amount of rights to Ligue 1 due to the health crisis.

“As early as June, we put certain questions related to Covid on the table.

We couldn't pretend there was nothing.

We are also victims, like the clubs or the public, of this crisis, ”Jaume Roures told us at the end of October.

A conciliation with the commercial court of Nanterre was opened in mid-October.

Without results for the moment.

But time is running out: the next payment due by Mediapro to the Professional Football League is set for Saturday, December 5.

The Professional Football League (LFP), for its part, has undertaken a merger with the Canal + group, in the hope that the latter will at least partially resume matches held by Mediapro.

This in order to lighten Mediapro's bill and to resolve its cash flow problems.

The Téléfoot channel now claims 600,000 subscribers.

Far from the 3.5 million needed to make his project profitable.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2020-11-27

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.