Telefoot, the new channel launched this summer by the Mediapro group, continues to be talked about. The Sino-Spanish group, holder of TV rights for Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 for the next four seasons, is talking to internet service providers. And for the moment, the price asked to broadcast their channels would be too high ...

25 euros per month for subscribers ... and 100 million per year for internet service providers. Mediapro, which arrives this summer in the French audiovisual landscape with its "Telefoot" channel dedicated to Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 football, seems to have set its prices for subscribers and ISPs. If Orange, Bouygues, SFR or Free wish to have Telefoot on their internet box, they will therefore have to take out a big check, according to information from the economic magazine Capital, which reports very complicated negotiations with the Sino-Spanish group.

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Reluctant operators

And operators are currently reluctant to release 100 million to distribute French football. Especially since other formats are being studied as has already been done in the past by paying "Telefoot" according to the number of subscribers that the channel brings. Difficult to imagine for Orange where Bouygues pay the sum in advance and see at the end that it does not attract any additional subscribers on their box. If the disagreement persists, Mediapro could therefore not be available via the ISPs, which would be a significant commercial handicap.

Jaume Roures and Mediapro are considering the idea of ​​broadcasting the channel via a paid website. A very risky strategy because the channel would lose visibility since more than three quarters of French people watch TV through their box.

Mediapro plays very big

Within three months of the launch of Telefoot, Mediapro has no room for error. The Sino-Spanish group has spent the record figure of 780 million per year to broadcast the best of French football, in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. We must also add what the group will have to give to TF1 (about 5 million euros according to L'Equipe ). The Bouygues group chain will produce a large part of the emissions and "lend" its consultants Bixente Lizarazu and Grégoire Margotton. 

Officially, the channel is targeting 3.5 million subscribers to be balanced. But this objective seems ambitious: for example, Ligue 1 matches on Canal + reach at best two million viewers (for example, the PSG-OM of October 2019 had gathered 1.88 million people).