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 Traditional media companies like Canal+ are under pressure to
find ways to bulk up their content as they face competition from
deep-pocketed online streaming platforms such as Netflix and
newcomers in the sports rights business such as Chinese-owned
Mediapro.
Canal+, a particular focus for Vivendi's leading investor
Vincent Bolloré, built a reputation of broadcasting major soccer
matches but ended up empty-handed in last year's broadcasting
rights auction for Ligue 1 covering 2020-2024.
The auction marked the dramatic entry of Mediapro,
majority-owned by Chinese private equity fund Orient Hontai,
onto France’s broadcasting stage. Its involvement helped to push
up annual broadcasting rights for France's top soccer league to
a record of more than 1.15 billion euros ($1.27 billion)
Out of the seven lots offered for last year's auction, three
were won by Mediapro, including the one featuring the
championship’s top 10 matches.
Under the current terms of the talks with Qatar-based beIN,
Canal+ would exclusively sub-license beIN's Ligue 1 rights for
2020-2024, allowing Canal+'s subscribers to watch two games on
each match day, including 28 of the 38 top games of each season.
Canal+ Chief Executive Maxime Saada told French newspaper Le
Figaro the company would pay 330 million euros for the sub-licence
arrangement.
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The pay-TV firm would offer all beIN Sports' premium sports
channels in France, according to a joint statement from the two
companies, which until now were arch-rivals in the battle for
sports TV rights.
Similar talks with Mediapro failed, Saada told Le Figaro.
"Indeed, we had started negotiations with our Spanish-Chinese
friends that were more or less similar. But they stumbled on
financial issues," he said.
Asked by Le Figaro if the potential agreement with beIN Sports
could mark the start of consolidation in the pay-TV sector in
France, Saada said all scenarios had been discussed for a year
with beIN, but that a commercial agreement was the best way to
work for both companies.
The joint announcement comes two weeks after Canal+ and beIN
said they had won the rights to broadcast Europe's Champions
League soccer matches in France between 2021 and 2024.
($1 = 0.9073 euros)
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Gwenaelle Barzic; Writing by
Matthieu Protard; Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter)
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