There is total silence from the Professional Football League at a time when everyone is wondering how the Ligue 1 broadcasting rights issue will end. Canal+ has never seemed so in a position of strength.
Maxime Saada, the big boss of Canal+, defended himself a few weeks ago from wanting to be the “ gravedigger » of Ligue 1. A little sentence which obviously owes nothing to chance, the latter always being very skilled in matters of communication. But as Euro 2024 begins in Germany, the 18 elite French football clubs do not know what they will receive from TV rights, any more than they will know where the championship matches will be broadcast from from August 16. For many sports rights specialists, opinions agree, namely that the 100% Ligue 1 channel project set up by the LFP is only a decoy, but that only one channel can save the L1, that is Canal+ . Very severe with Vincent Labrune, whom he thinks must leave and quickly, Pierre Maes sees in the encrypted channel the only real serious candidate for the acquisition of the championship until 2029.
Canal+ curls its mustaches with L1
Speaking on Linkedin, the international sports television rights consultant, author in particular of “ The Ruin of French Football ” And ” The Football TV Rights Business “, no longer believes at all in what the LFP says and sees Canal+ as the only real serious candidate in this issue of Ligue 1 broadcasting rights. ” Today, all the signals are red: broadcasters, including GAFA, are turning away from the Ligue 1 product one after the other, to the point that the League is now considering creating its own channel. Don’t believe a word of it, it’s just a good old-fashioned bluff to try to sway CANAL+, the last candidate in the running, even if he denies it. The above-ground communication of certain club presidents directly attacking Canal+ reflects a position stuck in the past, where it was enough to throw the rights on the market to see the price soar. It’s over, gentlemen, all the leagues in Europe are facing monopolies on the broadcaster side and have no other choice but to be humble, pragmatic (and polite) to try to find a deal where the rights will not go down not too much », Warns Pierre Maes, who thinks that Ligue 1 must understand that the golden age of TV rights was probably to be associated with the past. Not easy when just a year ago, the president of the League was talking about 1 billion euros per year for L1 clubs.
