The Professional Football League has decided to terminate the contract with its major broadcaster Mediapro after two months of conflict over television rights to Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. The Téléfoot channel should therefore stop, but no date has yet been set. evoked.
Mediapro-Téléfoot, it's over.
According to information from
the Team
, a meeting was convened on Friday in the premises of Téléfoot to announce that an agreement was reached between the LFP (Professional Football League) and Mediapro.
The chain should thus stop, in the long term, without giving for the moment a precise date.
Between the two parties, the dispute over the issue of TV rights has been open for several months.
The Sino-Spanish broadcaster refused to pay the October (172.3 million euros) and December (152.5 million euros) installments, bringing the sum of unpaid bills to nearly 350 million euros. the league.
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The LFP should recover its rights on December 21
Mediapro had acquired the main Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches for the period 2020-2024 against 830 million euros per year.
But in October Jaime Roures, president of the group, had demanded a reduction in this sum, judging the product "devalued" by the health crisis and freezing the payment of rights pending.
The LFP had not given in, fearing that other championship broadcasters, such as Canal + or beIN Sports, would also claim a rebate.
According to some sources, Mediapro was unable to honor its drafts, with only 600,000 subscribers, for an initial stated target of 3.5 million.
The output of the failing Sino-Spanish broadcaster has yet to be validated by the Nanterre Commercial Court, the same source said, indicating that the LFP should recover its broadcasting rights by December 21.
The deadline for resolving this conflict was initially December 18.
A board of directors of the LFP was held Friday morning to study the issue.
Contacted by AFP, Mediapro did not respond.
What next?
All eyes will now turn to Canal +, the historic broadcaster of the French Championship which remains discreet on the matter and has already indicated via his boss Maxime Saada that he would not reinvest "at a loss" in football.
This raises fears of a discount of several hundred million euros per year, compared to the historic contract negotiated during the call for tenders in 2018, in the amount of 1.217 billion euros for Ligue 1 and the League. 2, including more than 800 for Mediapro.
A sharp drop that may be difficult to cash for many clubs already weakened by the health crisis and empty stadiums.