On the edge of the financial precipice, French football hopes to receive saving offers on Monday for the reallocation of most of Ligue 1 TV rights. But faced with a cautious market and mistrust of Canal +, the crisis seems far from over.
On the side of the Parisian headquarters of the Professional Football League (LFP) at 12 noon, many will be crossing their fingers. By this time, all interested operators will have submitted their offers, and it will be time to study them.
Canal +? Bein Sports? Amazon? Which players will respond to the urgently launched market consultation to reallocate matches abandoned by the failing broadcaster Mediapro (80% of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2)? Will there be a savior for Ligue 1?
Around the president of the LFP Vincent Labrune, Jean-Michel Aulas (Lyon), Jacques-Henri Eyraud (Marseille), Jean-Pierre Caillot (Reims), Christian Leca (Ajaccio / L2) and Philippe Piat (UNFP union) will form a committee pilot responsible for unsealing the envelopes in the afternoon.
If the offers exceed the reserve prices set by the League and the candidates offer sufficient guarantees, the prizes (four for L1, two for L2) will be awarded and the lucky ones will take over from Téléfoot, the Mediapro channel. , from February 5.
Otherwise, or if there is no candidate for certain lots, over-the-counter discussions will follow in the coming days and concerns will start again for the clubs, which are already anticipating losses of 1 , 3 billion euros at the end of the season, between pandemic and crisis of TV rights
– The use of Canal + –
Unfortunately for club managers, the events of the last few days seem to tip the scales in the direction of this second hypothesis, or, at best, towards offers very far from the 780 million euros per year initially promised by the Mediapro group in 2018 for the L1.
“The market has nothing to do with that of 2018”, notes Pierre Maes, consultant and author of “Business of TV rights”, citing competition “almost reduced to a monopoly” Canal +. “The most important thing in a tender is the timing. Finding yourself having to launch one now is like committing a desperate act.”
The icing on the cake, the LFP and Canal + are in full legal dispute over the terms of the call for tenders.
The encrypted channel, which broadcasts the remaining 20% of Ligue 1 for 330 million euros per year, believes it has “overestimated” the value of these matches in the context of 2018 and wants all matches to be put back into competition in a global call for tenders. She even appealed to the Paris Commercial Court to this effect, with a hearing scheduled for February 19 which could invalidate the procedure a posteriori.
In this context, will the Vivendi group, led by Vincent Bolloré, boycott the market consultation?
– Amazon hoped –
At the same time, the League hopes for the emergence of a new player. Amazon, the web giant starting to invest in sports rights, is most cited, but its forays elsewhere in Europe remain limited and it did not apply for the Serie A tender this week in Italy .
Elsewhere in the market, it’s dead calm. TF1 and M6 confirmed to AFP that they were not intended to acquire L1 matches, while France Télévisions made no comment. Orange, a time cited by some media, will not be either: “We are away from this process,” said its CEO Stéphane Richard.
As for the DAZN platform, the “Netflix” of sport, it declined to comment but seems more interested in securing its current rights in Italy
In the event of an unsuccessful procedure, the League will have to decide: where will we see Ligue 1 in the short term, and in particular on Sunday for the Marseille-PSG Classic? Téléfoot, which will broadcast at least until February 3, is ready to extend the adventure. Canal + is also interested, as are several free channels. But at what cost?
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