Mediapro, future broadcaster of the Ligue 1 football, will he be present for the resumption of the championship on August 7, 2020? While the concern, eight months from the next season, Jaume Roures, the founder and boss of Mediapro, was in Paris, Thursday, December 12, to reassure the bosses of the clubs, all gathered on the occasion of the General Assembly of the Professional Football League (LFP).
Monday, Canal +, big loser, last year, the tender of the Ligue 1 for the seasons 2020-2024, announced to have bought BeIN Sports its two weekly games for 330 million euros. On December 2, the encrypted channel got its hands on the Champions League. Hence an offensive communication by the president of Canal +, Maxime Saada, on this remontada.
An underlying question is: will there be room for Mediapro next year? "We trust Mediapro. The League now has two partners, a history and a new entrant. This duopolization simplifies things. It's good for the consumer and for the distributors ", observed the general manager of the LFP, Didier Quillot, at the end of the meeting with the clubs.
Come to dispel the worries, Jaume Roures reaffirmed his "Project to create a 100% football channel". "There is a misleading communication in recent days"continued, for its part, Julien Bergeaud, recruited in October to run Mediapro in France. "PSG-OM, the big posters, the derbys, the clasico: 85% of the Ligue 1 and 80% of the Ligue 2 will be on our antenna. We will open all major L1 days on Friday nights ", he argued, recalling that of the 76 games bought by Canal + from BeIN Sports, 21 would be codiffused by Mediapro. On the antenna of Mediapro, the subscriber will be able to see 325 of the 380 matches of the championship season.
The channel will be marketed 25 euros per month, said Roures, which aims "Between 3 and 3.5 million subscribers". "We are defending a 100% French football product. The "bundles" (diversified offers) do not work anymore »assured Julien Bergeaud. Mediapro hopes to distribute this channel extensively, through traditional channels such as telecom operators, or Internet operators such as Facebook or Amazon. "We are working with Facebook in Asia"explained the Spanish group. "Five million people consume television differently"corroborated his number two.