France: Canal+ launching Champions League package
September 2, 2021
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
Canal+ is launching a dedicated Champions League TV package to celebrate the return of the competition to its screens after it acquired the rights in November 2019. The Canal+ channels, as well as 100 per cent of the Champions League matches on Canal+ and beIN Sports are available for €25.99 per month in the twelve first months, then €35.99 per month.
Sharing the Champions League’s main rights with beIN Sports for the 2021-2024 period, Canal+, which has also signed a sub-licence deal with RMC Sport (Altice), is set to broadcast two of the four main matches as well as all the highlights.
The group is also opening a multiplex on OTT platform MyCanal, Champions League Stadium, which enables viewers to switch from one match to another or watch them simultaneously.
Sport remains one Canal+ historical pillars, with the importance of this genre being strongly reasserted at the presentation of the group’s new TV season, “Canal+ becomes the first worldwide broadcaster for the Champions League,” declared CEO Maxime Saada, announcing a “very big season, with ultra-premium exclusives”.
Canal+ boasts to offer the “best sport offering of its history”. Besides football, it also bets on the rugby Top 14, boxing, golf along with the Formula One and MotoGP races.
Regarding the group fundamentals, Saada highlighted the positive trend in subscribers acquisition and the fact that Canal+ group has returned with a €500 million profitability, allowing it to invest €3.2 billion per year. “Canal+ is now a worldwide group, settled into 40 countries. In the last five years, the number of subscribers doubled from 11 to 22 million, it tripled in Africa, doubled in Europe and we reached one million new customers in Asia,” he reported.
The Canal+ French TV season is also built on cinema (600 movies) and the arrival of thirteen in-house original series, as well as 30 exclusive foreign productions.
The group is also strengthening its documentary and youth content offering with the creation of new theme channels, Canal+Docs and Canal+Kids, debuting on September 9th. The youth channel follows the closure on August 31st of Canal+ Family, which had been broadcasting since 2007.