The French TV channel, Canal+ has warned to boycott the Ligue 1 games, refrain from showing them. Also, they have threatened to take legal action, after the governing administration of the league, awarded a specific share in the TV rights for French football, to Amazon.
Canal+ would withdraw than sharing rights with Amazon
LFP, the French regulatory authority, announced a share of broadcasts rights to Amazon, on Friday. This lead to large implications of fierce replies from the channel Canal+. They also stated that they would rather withdraw, than sharing rights with Amazon. Some sources verify that – After the breakdown of the Mediapro choice 3 years back in 2018, channel Canal+ is dissatisfied with LFP’s decision to welcome Amazon’s bid to the loss of that of its earlier partners, Canal+ and beIN Sports. Hence it is heard that the channel will not broadcast Ligue 1 from now.
The new deal
Sources from France 24 also said that the French Football TV’s future is on disharmony, especially at this wrong time when the new top-flight season will begin in August.
This event took place when Mediapro backed off, and then LFP was determined to change the system by dividing the rights between Canal+ and Amazon in a deal of 570 million pounds till 3 years, i.e. 2024. Earlier, Mediapro and Canal+ had a deal where 80% of rights for Ligue 1 matches, eight per round, belonged to Mediapro. The French channel paid around 285 million pounds, which was per season to show, the other two.
For the deal, Jeff Bezos’ company, also got some benefits, by taking a share of 2 Ligue matches with beIN Sport. With the setup of the new deal, Amazon is ready to pay 215 million pounds to maintain the domestic rights, and also 80% of the matches with Canal+, which follows the norms of the previous deal and still be paying 265 million pounds for two matches each round.
