Canal+, French football agreement
February 5, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Canal+ has reportedly struck an agreement with the French football league LFP over the 2020-2021 television rights.
Reports in French sports newspaper L’Equipe, and business paper Les Echos say that the agreement includes all games from Ligue 1 and eight games from Ligue 2.
The price of the rights is reported to be between €650 million-€700 million (with Canal+ paying a few extra million in addition to the €330 million from its beIN licensing agreement, and Mediapro having paid about €272 million), coming back at previous seasons’ valuation but below the c€1.5 billion valuation reached during the auctions in 2018, according to a summary from investment bank Exane/BNPP.
The bank’s view is the agreement has been reached for 2020/2021 only, but not for the entire season.
“However, this is a small positive for Canal+ and will help the channel to retain subscribers,” says the bank.