French TV Channel Likely Collapse = No/Reduced TV money for French Clubs ?

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The French League's principal domestic TV right's holder may be going bust imminently - with the current quarter's payment (October to December) still unpaid - or it may continue but showing less games and paying French clubs less money if a compromise can be found.

Whilst the French League may be able to re-sell the match's 'dropped' by its principal rights holder, the total tv money being received by French clubs looks like being much less than previously - putting in jeopardy some French clubs.

So lots of French players up for sale in January ? But doubt if French clubs will want to buy any PL players or be able to afford their high wages either in January or probably the summer.



Why the lights might be turned off on French football this weekend | Get French Football News (getfootballnewsfrance.com)

Why the lights might be turned off on French football this weekend​

A farce that has been brewing all year, a farce that French football could have avoided – just 4 months on from the “glorious” beginning of Téléfoot Chaine, the new principal domestic rights holder of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 action, its employees were told on Tuesday afternoon that the entire station is facing the possibility of being shut down in the immediate future, with one source telling Get French Football News that they are not even sure that they will be broadcasting the bumper clash between PSG and Lyon on Sunday night.

This situation has transpired as a result of the station’s parent company, Mediapro, refusing to make payments that they are obliged to make, to the LFP, the professional French league body, for October and December, citing publicly that they wanted a COVID-19 discount on the amount of money they agreed to pay for domestic rights for the 2020/21 campaign. Mediapro were supposed to pay the LFP €830m this season alone, approximately €3.3bn over a 4-year contract.

This has led to the LFP taking Mediapro to court in the Tribunal of Commerce in Nanterre, with the presiding mediator assigned the case due to deliver his judgment on Thursday.

The final decision about the fate of Téléfoot Chaine lies in the hands of the board members of its parent company, Mediapro, headquartered in Barcelona.

Téléfoot Chaine employees were told this afternoon that there are two options in the short-term – either the channel remains in existence but has less rights, losing notably the Sunday night game, always the most high-profile affair on a Ligue 1 weekend, or the channel ceases to exist altogether.

“We were told that this possibility existed and that it was not possible to hide it,” said a journalist present at the meeting to L’Équipe.

Employees were briefed by Jean-Michel Roussier, responsible for the running the station, after several journalists working for the channel were told by Ligue 1 presidents via text messages that their channel would no longer be covering the league in the very near future.

These presidents have recently had a telephone meeting with Vincent Labrune, the president of the LFP, and Marc Sénéchal, the mediator appointed by the commercial court of Nanterre, who do not believe that Mediapro are capable of honouring their contract and thus are looking for an alternative broadcaster.

A current Téléfoot Chaine journalist summed the situation up:

“Some have gone as far as to say that we will not be airing PSG vs Lyon (on Sunday), how crazy!”

The LFP could be left with no money and no way for French football fans to watch the league – Reims President Caillot confirmed that clubs will face bankruptcy if in January and February the situation has not ameliorated.

At the moment, the LFP and its clubs are surviving with a series of government-backed bank loans, having taken out two this year, one following the COVID-19 crisis resulting in the truncated 2019/20 season, and then the second in October when the first Mediapro payment was not made. A decision has not yet been made on how the LFP and its clubs will survive without the December payment.

The government has made it clear that it will not bail French football out, with the Minister of Education and Sports, Jean-Michel Blanquer, saying the following on Tuesday:

“We do not intend to cover reckless risks in this Mediapro affair. There are things that have happened that are not good, risks taken by private actors, excessive risks, and this must be highlighted because it must never happen again. You cannot in business take risks of this type and then call the state like a firefighter with public money to somehow cover the risks… Aside form that, of course, as Minister of Sports, I am very attentive to the life of the clubs.”

Canal Plus, who had been French football’s intended knight in shining armour, is in active negotiations about replacing Mediapro’s domestic rights deal, but they intend to offer a sum that would see the existing €1.15bn a year contract be chopped down to around €700m, which would actually work as less than the previous broadcasting contract, which they had a greater share of than in the new 2020-24 broadcasting rights cycle which Mediapro lead.

When contacted by Get French Football News on Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for Téléfoot Chaine declined to comment when asked if the channel was going to be able to show PSG vs Lyon on Sunday.




existence but has less rights, losing notably the Sunday night game, always the most high-profile affair on a Ligue 1 weekend, or the channel ceases to exist altogether.
 
Don't wish ill on other leagues (those are not our direct rivals), but Levy better get his grubby opportunistic hands on some low price French wingers and CBs. None of them Nkoudus or Njies.
 
Disastrous day for French football as TV rights bidding tender flops | Get French Football News (getfootballnewsfrance.com)

Disastrous day for French football as TV rights bidding tender flops​

A day that many felt was doomed to fail did not disappoint with the level of drama that it provided at the LFP’s offices in Paris.

French football’s governing body this morning held a new tender for bids to take over the cancelled Mediapro broadcasting contract, which was due to bring French football €830m a year between 2020 and 2024. The contract was cancelled after the broadcaster failed to make its 2nd payment as per the agreement, in October – they would go on to pay just the single starting instalment of the deal in August. Mediapro asked for a COVID-19 discount for the first campaign, the LFP said no, and took Mediapro to court, resulting in a dispute resolution agreement in front of the Nanterre tribunal in December. Mediapro agreed to pay €100m in remedies and the contract was cancelled.

Since, Mediapro’s OTT channel Téléfoot Chaine has been broadcasting the matches without having to pay the LFP for them, as the league body has struggled to find a replacement broadcaster. Initially, the LFP had hoped that Canal Plus, who have been showing French football since the 20th century, would step in to allow French football to absorb its losses. Canal Plus offered €400m for the whole lot, which would have been roughly a third of the overall initial package shared across multiple broadcasters of €1.135bn.

The LFP refused, Canal Plus chose to sue them. The French broadcaster is currently paying €332m a year for two Ligue 1 games a week, the package that they had bought alongside losing out to Mediapro for the majority of the French football matches (8 in Ligue 1 and 10 in Ligue 2) for the 2020-2024 period. Now that Mediapro’s contract has been cancelled, Canal + feel that paying €332m a year for two matches per gameweek is excessive and that they should be released from their contractual obligations in order for the whole of French football domestic rights to be renegotiated. The LFP has refused, and thus the two will go up against each other in 14 days time in a Paris court on this matter.

Today was supposed to see the LFP saved from themselves – bidding was opened on four different types of packages. The LFP needed to ensure that the offers made today amounted in total to €300m a year, the minimum, they had calculated, required to keep French football afloat. On top of Canal Plus’ existing €332m a year contract.

RMC Sport report that the 4 offers received by the LFP during this morning’s tender process do not amount to that sum. BeIN Sports, Canal + and Altice/RMC all boycotted the event, in a shock and major slap in the face for LFP President Vincent Labrune, who had personally travelled to Doha in an attempt to convince Qatari bosses at BeIN to bail French football out.

Instead, new media made their bids: offers came in from Amazon, Discovery and DAZN – but which packages of matches they bid for and for how much exactly remains unclear. All that we know is that the simple arithmetic of adding up offers per package did not amount to €300m in any combination.
The fourth bidder was the most surprising – Editorial Director at Téléfoot Chaine, Jean-Michel Roussier. He made the offers through a company that he owns himself. He bid on 2 Ligue 1 packages, and two Ligue 2 packages for the 2020-24 period. Who is backing him financially is unknwon.

The LFP’s board of directors met soon after the bids came in in emergency fashion and have decided to reflect on the situation for 24 hours before convening again.
 
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