Canal Plus once again tackles French Football and Ligue 1 for its 40th anniversary

TELEVISION – Canal Plus celebrates its 40th anniversary this Monday, November 4. The opportunity for the private channel to celebrate this anniversary event by broadcasting a fake trailer for the series, retracing its history in fast motion.

Born in 1984, decoder, royalties, financing, French cinema… All the subjects are covered in these two rhythmic minutes which take up the codes of series and cinema, an area in which the channel offers an extensive and acclaimed catalog, from Legends Office has Black Baron.

Not enough, undoubtedly, to make us forget the painful farewells to the French Football championship, broadcast for 40 years on the channel but no longer since the start of the 2024-25 season. The opportunity for Canal to send a nice dig to the Professional Football League (LFP).

“We did everything for French football! Is this how we get thanked? »a man says in the trailer (see below). ” How much ? »asks another: “a billion!” ». “It’s not just Ligue 1…”concludes the second man, before the images rightly follow one another on Formula 1, for which Canal Plus has acquired the TV rights until 2029.

From one billion to 500 million euros

Ce “billion” refers to the moment, this year, when Ligue 1 was still valued at a billion euros by the leaders of French football, at the time of the renegotiation of TV rights for the period 2024-2029. For the president of the LFP Vincent Labrune, he hoped for 800 million euros from national rights, to which could be added 200 million euros for international rights.

Alas, after countless negotiations and back and forths with possible broadcasters, the TV rights to Ligue 1 ended up being awarded to the DAZN-beIN Sports duo for “only” 500 million euros. To everyone's surprise, in September 2023, Canal Plus announced that it would not position itself in the race for Ligue 1, abandoning one of its flagship products. “It is clear that our relations with the LFP have deteriorated significantly over the years”deplored Maxime Saada in a letter at this time.

Since then, many supporters and even players in French football have deplored the departure of Canal Plus in favor of DAZN, whose channel is criticized for its overly expensive subscriptions and low-cost retransmissions.

“I am the Canal+ generation and, for me, today, I say it and I will always repeat it, we lost a great partner. Because it’s not a broadcaster, for me, Canal is family”launched Nantes coach Antoine Kombouaré during a press conference in mid-September. “I could never conceive of Canal+ without Ligue 1 or Ligue 1 without Canal+. For me, this is heresy. I say it. It’s even big bullshit”he insisted.

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