Serial thunderclaps.
While the Professional Football League (LFP) had chosen Canal +, Amazon and beIN Sports to broadcast Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 from next season, this Friday, the encrypted channel announced to withdraw its offer concerning the first division.
The reason for his anger: the choice of the LFP to bring Amazon into the dance.
“After the failure of the choice of Mediapro in 2018, Canal + regrets the decision of the Professional Football League (LFP) to retain Amazon's proposal today to the detriment of that of its historical partners CANAL + and beIN Sports.
Canal + will therefore not broadcast Ligue 1, ”announced the encrypted television group (a subsidiary of Vivendi) in a press release.
Earlier, the American giant had indeed burst into French football by sharing with Canal + the broadcasting of Ligue 1, with an annual amount of 663 million euros for clubs until 2024.
According to the distribution adopted by the Board of Directors of the Professional Football League (LFP), Canal + must pay 332 million euros each season over the period 2021-2024, against 250 million euros annually for Amazon.
The American distribution giant would for its part add an extension to also share Ligue 2 (second division of the French Championship) with beIN Sports. The Qatari channel, which was in contention for 80% of Ligue 1 matches and 100% of Ligue 2 matches, would be satisfied for its share of two matches per day of L2 (30 million euros), the rest going to Amazon for 9 million euros (plus the payment of production costs, estimated at 25 million euros). The operator Free would keep the batch of extracts "quasi-direct" for 42 million euros.
In total, professional clubs should therefore receive half of what they should have obtained at the time of the eruption of Mediapro (1.2 billion euros), a failed broadcaster whose foray into France turned into a fiasco.
A lesser evil, however, for French football, very shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Partners with strong backs
Above all, the agreement was to mark the entry with great fanfare into the landscape of French football from Amazon, which in recent years has entered the sports rights market via its Prime Video platform, acquiring, for example, certain football TV rights. in England, Germany and Italy, or even tennis matches at Roland-Garros for the French market.
The strategy of the online distribution giant is mainly aimed at promoting subscriptions to its Prime platform, a service that brings together music, films, series, documentaries and currently costs 49 euros per year or 5.99 euros per month.
The choice of Canal + (a subsidiary of Vivendi) and Amazon, partners with very solid financial backs, had to be able to restore a little visibility and stability to the clubs, given the urgency of the situation.
But Canal + decided otherwise.
"From the start of the school year, the Canal + Group will offer its subscribers, for the first time, the two most beautiful posters for each day of the Champions League and, from August 11, the Supercup (European Supercup, Editor's note) between Chelsea and Villarreal.
The most prestigious European competition will complete a rich sports offer of the Premier League, Top14, Formula 1, or even MotoGP, broadcast in full, ”argues the channel in its press release.
French football seems to be setting off again for a new long judicial soap opera, after having finally seemed to succeed in breaking the deadlock.