French football TV auction brought forward
April 23, 2018
By Chris Forrester
The French football league (LFP) looks set to auction the broadcasting rights for the 2020+ seasons in early June.
The current TV rights expire in mid-2020 and are shared between Canal+ (which holds the majority of the rights) and rival beIN Sports. The most recent auction raised some €750 million, but it is widely reported that the League is seeking €1 billion for the next round of rights.
Given that the new transmission period does not kick in until the 2020-21 season an early auction would give the LFP plenty of time to mount a second bidding process if the initial bids are not appealing enough.
However, as media analysts at Exane/BNPP say in a note April 23rd, the €1 billion is very much the LFP’s own target and would need to see substantial – and not necessarily profit-generating – bids to be enthusiastically supported by Vivendi/C+, beIN and Altice. That said, the bank states it does not expect to see C+ give up its influence and coverage of the LFP’s Ligue 1 rights.