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France’s troubled Ligue 1 on Thursday reached an agreement with Canal Plus to broadcast the rest of the games this season after a dramatic fall in contract with Mediapro.
The league was left without a domestic broadcast partner after Mediapro ‘s contract, which was expected to bring in 780 million euros ($ 941 million) per quarter for the four years to 2024, expired in December.
The remaining 80 percent of TV rights were left as a result of being put up to tender on Monday, although none of the three bidders – Amazon, DAZN or Discovery – met the asking price.
Sources told AFP that Canal Plus was offering to pay an extra 35 million euros to cover the rest of the season, in addition to the existing 330 million euro contract for the 20 another percentage of rights.
According to the same sources, television revenue for high-flying clubs will fall 49 percent this season. There will be a 40 per cent reduction in Ligue 2.
Canal Plus did not take part in this week ‘s call for tenders. The company had been looking to tear down the original contract and put it out to tender again.
The latest deal ends the lengthy departure of Mediapro, whose contract was torn apart nearly four months after the Spanish company – controlled by Chinese investment funds – failed to meet payment deadlines.
However, the agreement with Canal Plus only covers the rest of the 2020-21 campaign, meaning the rights have to be renegotiated for the following seasons.
The original agreement struck in 2018 resulted in net French clubs 1.15 billion euros per year, compared to Germany, Spain and Italy if not the Premier League.
It was announced last week that Ligue 1 clubs were to suffer a combined catastrophic loss of more than 1.3 billion euros ($ 1.57 billion) this season as a result of a combination of the Covid-19 pandemic – which has led to games being played in empty stadiums — and the fall of the Mediapro contract.
(AFP)