July 14 – Has a separation between France’s LFP and its traditional anchor broadcaster Canal+ become inevitable? With Ligue 1 kicking off the first weekend of August, the broadcaster has renewed its request to terminate its contract with the league, confirming its position after Amazon won broadcast rights for the first time in June.
Canal+ has the rights to broadcast two matches per match day in Ligue 1 next season in a sub-licensing deal with beIN Sports, but the channel wants to end its contract which runs until 2024 and is worth €332 million, according to L’equipe.
Canal+ sent a letter to the LFP to communicate its intent. The broadcaster believes that the Qatari channel didn’t do its duty when “contesting this contract, signed when Mediapro burned the rights of the French league.”
Earlier this summer, retail giant Amazon won the broadcast rights for Ligue 1 for €330 million per season for the next three seasons, prompting a furious backlash and withdrawal from Canal+ to leave French club football on the brink of financial disaster yet again.
What should have been a landmark deal for French football in June turned sour quickly. The LFP awarded broadcast rights to Amazon allowing the American behemoth to broadcast eight games per week, leaving Canal+ de facto with just crumbs.
A long-time partner of French football, Canal+ also paid €330 million for its deal and said that it was not prepared to share the rights with Amazon. “Canal+ will not, therefore, be broadcasting Ligue 1,” said the broadcaster in a statement at the time.
The new Ligue 1 season will kick off in August and the exit of Canal+ will test the finances of French clubs, already ravaged by the global health pandemic, even more.The deal with Amazon handed the clubs a lifeline after the LFP’s contract with MediaPro, for which the Spanish agency paid €100 million euros in compensation, collapsed. Amazon’s money would have allowed to clubs to still bank €1.2 billion a season.
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