Final stage in the football soap opera between the Spanish group Mediapro and the Professional Football League (LFP). The Nanterre Commercial Court validated, Tuesday, December 22, the agreement reached between the two parties, which provides for the withdrawal of Mediapro, announced Guilhem Bremond, Mediapro’s lawyer. While the Spanish broadcaster launched the pay TV channel dedicated to football Téléfoot four months ago, the LFP can now recover 80% of the broadcasting rights for Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches.
The Spanish group, with Chinese funding, offered the broadcasting rights, in 2018, for more than 800 million euros per year. But the broadcaster had not settled its deadlines since October and had announced the closure of the channel to its employees at the beginning of December. The court decision comes to end a procedure started two months ago, when Mediapro asked for the contract to be renegotiated downward.
New negotiations to reassign rights
Now that Mediapro will disappear from the French market, the LFP will have to undertake new negotiations to reallocate the television broadcasting rights. According to several sources, quoted by AFP, a new call for tenders would not be essential, and the negotiation could go through mutual agreement agreements.
The Canal + group seems favorite, with its ally, the specialized channel beIN Sports. In addition to Canal +, Amazon or the streaming sports platform DAZN could take a position. Pending a new agreement, “Mediapro, via its Téléfoot channel, will continue to broadcast Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches and programs, until these rights are reassigned to another broadcaster”, the group said in a statement confirming the agreement.
In addition, while the clubs anticipate a discount of several hundred million euros per year, they will share the 64 million euros paid by Mediapro in compensation for its withdrawal. In the first half of 2021, an additional 36 million must be paid. A total sum of 100 million euros will be disbursed by Mediapro, well below the 325 million euros unpaid by the Catalan group since October.
