Things keep going from bad to worse for French Ligue 1.
Last week, Canal announced that it would return the television rights of two games consistent with the week to BeIN Sports, who agreed to pay BeIN Sports approximately $400 million to sublicense the games from 2020 to 2024.
Canal’s resolution is only the last hit for Ligue 1, which was labeled the top savior of Ligue 1 after a record broadcast contract of nearly $1 billion a year for four seasons with Mediapro, which collapsed only a few months after the deal.
But instead of testing the Mediapro package at a reduced price, Channel President Maxime Saada announced the return of sublicense and challenged the league to start from scratch.
In his comments to Le Figaro, Saada said that no station had benefited from the rights for many years and that the days of the broadcasters subsidizing Ligue 1 were over.
The genesis of the existing crisis dates back to 2018, when a record contract was announced with Mediapro to broadcast matches, Mediapro, a media conglomerate founded in Barcelona, newcomer to French football without an existing platform to broadcast matches.
There have been precautionary symptoms that have been rejected or overlooked.
Mediapro had presented a monetary guarantee and the representatives of Ligue 1 had never asked for it, the lack of adequate monetary guarantee had led Serie A to enter into a rights agreement with Mediapro, also in 2018.
However, the record deal, worth 60% more than the last high, seemed to blind the league to risks. When the deal was announced, it was announced as a game changer for French clubs and an agreement that would push Ligue 1 to a more advanced position. the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga (the Benefit of Premier League rights of more than $2. 7 billion a year puts it in one’s elegance).
It wasn’t long before Mediapro’s plan failures began to appear, Mediapro had to set up a new channel to broadcast 18 ligue 1 games consistent with circular matches and 2-8 high-flying. $30 a month, however, did not feature any other exclusive football action. With an estimated subscription base of 600,000 subscribers, Telefoot has reached only 15% of the audience needed to achieve balance.
Mediapro delivered its first payment due in August. However, he did not pay the nearly $400 million owed in October and December, and the deal ended.
Mediapro CEO Jaume Roures said the Covid-19 effect was one of the main reasons for his company’s problems, but that reasoning sounds empty when you consider that most enthusiasts have television and streaming to fuel their habit from the virus. Hit.
It also ignores the fact that Mediapro had monetary problems before the arrival of Covid-19. The company suffered a significant drop in revenue in 2019 and two primary credit rating agencies lowered Mediapro’s debt rating in rotten bond territory.
First, early cancellation of the 2019/20 season with approximately 25% of Ligue 1 games to play. A report through Ernst
With Covid-19 restrictions still in place, door winnings are estimated to fall to $200 million this season. Adding to this the collapse of the Mediapro agreement and assuming that Canal’s resolution has a negative impact, a conservative estimate of the loss of the profit of those resources for Ligue 1, from April 2020 to June 2021, is $2 billion.
I have been a football presenter and announcer for over 25 years and have followed the game of the world for as long as I can remember. He was a football analyst for Fox Soccer
I have been a football announcer and announcer for over 25 years and have followed the game of the world for as long as I can remember. I was a football analyst for Fox Soccer Report and Fox Soccer News from 2001 to 2013.