Unhappy with the conditions imposed on it by Mediapro so that it can offer its subscribers the matches of Ligue 1 football, the Canal + group announced, Friday, September 18, in a press release that it had decided to take the Sino-Spanish group Mediapro to justice. .
Launched at the end of August, the channel of the Mediapro group is the new main broadcaster of the French football championship. and is notably available by subscription via telecom operators, on the Internet and on Apple devices.
“Taking note of the conditions imposed on it by the Mediapro Group for the distribution of the Téléfoot channel, the Canal + Group is forced to take legal action to put an end to the unequal treatment to which it is subject and to obtain conditions fair and non-discriminatory recovery “, explains the press release. According to Canal +, “The conditions precedent to any negotiation imposed by the Mediapro Group” are related “Under impossible conditions, are unrealistic in current market conditions and aim to exclude” the french group “Distribution of the particularly attractive Telefoot football offer”.
“What is offered to us is discriminatory”
In an interview with the site of The team, the boss of Canal +, Maxime Saada, clarified the origin of his anger: Mediapro “Asks us for a guaranteed number of subscribers, on which we should make a payment, which represents roughly a third of our total subscriber base and which is three times the total volume of subscribers to the Canal + sports pack. “
“I’m afraid they are trying to make us pay the amounts they might not have gotten from others [opérateurs] … No way “, added the president of the Canal + group, “Absolutely convinced” that competition was not subject to the same requirements.
“Our only objective is to shed light on the conditions of contracts and ensure that what is offered to us is discriminatory, because we are certain of it”, he insisted. A first hearing is scheduled for September 24 at the commercial court of Nanterre, said the encrypted channel.
Record amount for broadcasting rights
To everyone’s surprise, in May 2018, Mediapro had obtained from the Professional Football League the broadcasting rights for the elite of French football for the period 2020-2024 for a record amount of more than 800 million euros per year. This makes its Téléfoot channel an almost obligatory passage for French football fans.
But the Sino-Spanish group must work harder to build a distribution network and get to the screens. Starting from zero, he has signed a series of agreements in quick succession since the end of July, with the operators SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Free and Orange, as well as a partnership with Netflix, which will help him gain visibility. and gain subscribers. Its application has been available since Tuesday on Apple and Android platforms.
