Who said that Ligue 1 no longer attracts many people in front of the television?
Not Canal + whose audiences were rather favorable for the penultimate evening of the championship on Sunday evening.
1.34 million viewers (5.9% audience share) indeed followed the multiplex of the 37th day on the encrypted channel.
To which can be added the 984,000 football fans gathered in front of the OM-Angers meeting (4.3% audience share), broadcast unencrypted on C8 as a promotional gift from the channel.
Obviously, the extreme suspense that accompanies this exceptional end of the season, especially between Lille and PSG for the title but also on all levels of the ranking, is not unrelated to the fact of bringing together some 2.5 million viewers in front of the little one. screen. As well as the notoriety of OM, one of the most popular clubs in France. Canal +, which has been broadcasting Ligue 1 since mid-February after the defection of Mediapro, will renew the operation next Sunday on the occasion of the 38th and final day, offering an even more promising multiplex, as well as a new match of the OM on C8 in clear, in Metz.
"These figures are positive but not extraordinary," judge Pierre Maes, specialist in sports TV rights.
This shows that for a question of exposure, it was good for Ligue 1 to return to Canal +.
With Mediapro, there would have been only a fraction of those numbers.
With Mediapro, we didn't have the exposure but we had the money… ”
Canal + favors the best posters
However, these good punctual scores do not reflect the uncertainty and the pressure that hangs over the Ligue 1 TV rights file. The LFP will indeed find itself without a broadcaster on May 30th. If negotiations are underway, the League and Canal + seem to be quite far from reaching an agreement. The encrypted channel would like to free itself from lot 3 which initially guaranteed it two matches per day of the championship against 330 million euros per year. In addition, Canal + recently expressed its desire to acquire only the best posters in Ligue 1 and not all matches, as currently.
"That Canal is only interested in big games is absolutely no surprise," said Maes. In their today's pay-TV model, volume doesn't interest them. This priority being set by Canal, they cannot close the door to DAZN, which could very well come to take volume and the less good posters. BeIN could also play this role… ”
Finally, Canal + is campaigning for a Ligue 1 reduced from 20 to 18 clubs, which the LFP is considering, by the 2022-2023 season. “We have no information on what the League will do,” continues Maes. Is she going to call for tenders? If so, will this relate to all the lots or only to those not held by Canal + and beIN? But the basic situation remains the same, namely Canal + ultra-dominant, if not monopolistic, and which will therefore set the price. The League which will have to deal with the wishes of Canal +, if it wants to obtain as much money as possible, probably around half the level reached with the help of Mediapro (
Editor's note: 780 million euros per season
) ” Progress is expected in the coming weeks.
