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The Top 14 gets the Saturday night box on Canal +

2021-02-06T01:01:11.981Z


The encrypted channel having recovered the Ligue 1, rugby was asked to give up the Sunday prime-time. To have accepted without flinching, he recovered that of Saturday evening, always in premium. A match that will close the Top 14 day which will no longer play on Sunday.


When, in the middle of the week, Maxime Saada, the president of the management board of Canal +, had announced the purchase of OM-PSG, immediately propelled into prime time on Sunday evening, the lack of reaction from the leaders of the Top 14 had been notable.

The poster initially scheduled at the same time, Racing-la Rochelle, had however been unceremoniously resettled on Sunday at 2.15pm.

If the passionate subscribers of Top 14 had, legitimately, expressed their dissatisfaction - more for the manner, not very elegant, than for the verdict -, the League had not moved.

To remain surprisingly calm again, two days later, when the encrypted channel announced that it had recovered the broadcasting rights for the whole of Ligue 1 until the end of the season.

Which entailed, obviously, the definitive loss of the prime-time of Sunday evening for rugby, returned to its status of stopgap.

Questioned by

Midi Olympique

, the DG of the National Rugby League had not in the least protested against this treatment devoid of consideration.

“We have never considered ourselves to be in competition with Ligue 1. The two championships are attractive and complementary.

The proof being that the Top 14 has never ceased to grow in its exposure and its importance on the channels of Canal by cohabiting with Ligue 1, underlined an understanding Emmanuel Eschalier.

Sometimes there are a few tricky operational programming topics to sort out, but they always are.

(…) We are going to find solutions to combine the Ligue 1 and Top 14 programming while maintaining high quality rugby exposure, as has always been the case. ”

Canal has always considered and treated rugby well.

The Top 14 will not lose in the change

” 

Internal source at Canal +

An internal source at Canal + confirmed to

Le Figaro

that this vision was shared on the side of the holder of the broadcasting rights.

“Canal has always considered and treated rugby well.

The Top 14 will not lose in the change. ”

According to our information, which corroborates those of L'Equipe, this will indeed be the case.

If the oval ball is going to lose the box on Sunday evening, it will win that ... on Saturday evening.

This is the great novelty that Canal + and the NRL will announce at the start of the week when the new grid is revealed, which we have obtained in preview.

Football returning in majesty, by seizing the slots of Saturday 5 p.m. and Sunday 9 p.m. on Canal Premium for its two best posters, without forgetting, on Canal + sport this time, on Saturday evening and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. the places available for rugby were starting to shrink.

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Travers (Racing) not unhappy to no longer play on Sunday evening

To pass the pill, and demonstrate that the historic and courteous partnership between the Top 14 and the encrypted channel remained in place, the latter awarded the Saturday evening (9 p.m.) premium box for the best poster of the French rugby championship. .

Which also keeps, still in premium, that of Saturday at 3 p.m. (instead of 3:15 p.m.).

There will always be a match on Friday evening, now competing with Ligue 1 (on Canal + sport or Canal + sport weekend depending on the week).

The last four meetings of each day will be the subject of a multiplex on Canal + sport on Saturday at 5.45 p.m.

For, in the end, a Top 14 match less broadcast on the antennas (but all in full on Rugby +) and, above all, no more meetings on Sunday, each day now ending on Saturday evening.

This should delight the amateur rugby clubs, who have always regretted this internal competition, and the Top 14 supporters who, for the most part, did not appreciate the Sunday evening box, which deprived them of prolonging the party after the final whistle.

A schedule that the Top 14 will recover very punctually, each time Ligue 1 takes a break due to an international window.

“There are different valuation elements: the time slot itself which determines part of the audience, and then the broadcast channel: Canal + Premium and Canal + Sport.

It is obviously not the same power since the number of subscribers is not the same, underlined Emmanuel Eschallier in

Midol

.

But we have always found satisfactory solutions. "

Which means that the NRL has validated these changes.

With, most certainly, a little idea behind the head.

A give-and-take exchange.

Do not make a fuss and, in return, do not harbor concerns about the recent call for tenders for the Top 14, which was supposed to be successful on March 1.

The reserve price of 105 million hoped for by the NRL should easily be reached.

With certainly a small bonus for not having made a fuss when it comes to giving way to the football god.

Read also

  • How Canal + got hold of the TV broadcast of French football

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-02-06

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