Paris (AFP)

With its 2 million subscribers, RMC Sport, a group of premium pay channels from the Altice group, says it is entering its second season under this name with confidence, and its leaders assure that they have made sure that technical problems do not spoil this time. his return.

At a press conference on these sports channels, the CEO of Altice France, Alain Weill spoke of a "globally very positive balance", with a total of about 2 million subscribers to the bouquet, without detailing the distribution between customers of the operator SFR (another subsidiary of Altice), who benefit from a reduced rate, those who have subscribed to a so-called OTT offer (accessible via an online platform, without going through an operator) and those who have subscribed via Canal +.

This amount is similar to that mentioned by Altice in November, a few months after the revival of the bouquet. Created in 2016 under the name of SFR Sport, it adopted a year ago the new brand RMC Sport, a change that coincided with the start of the broadcast of major European competitions, the Champions League and the Europa League, and which allowed the bouquet, initially formed around the English Premier League, to change size.

For his part, Grégory Rabuel, executive director of SFR, questioned about the big technical problems that had partly spoiled the first season of RMC Sport, for the subscribers in OTT, was optimistic.

"We have taken extremely strong provisions on the technical part," he said, noting that all major OTT broadcasters had experienced quibbles in their infancy. "It's a new technology, when you have 150,000 subscribers (subscribers to the bouquet, ed) in the day, and even more when connecting to 21H to see the game, we have been inconvenienced", a- he pleaded.

But "during the season, it improved a lot and there were almost no problems at all," he added, saying "very confident" before the Champions League match of 18 September PSG / Real Madrid, which will be a new big test.

"I think we will do tens of thousands of subscriptions in the day, we will have hundreds of thousands of connections (in OTT) simultaneously the evening of the meeting and I can tell you that we are very confident, "he said.

Regarding sports rights, the group wants to be serene before the next call for tenders on the Champions League, expected this fall and is a crucial issue for its future.

"It is estimated that there is no urgency to launch this tender, we will see what will happen and we are especially focused to succeed in our second season," said Laurent Eichinger, the General Manager of RMC Sport.

As for the distribution of the bouquet, Altice is always open to new potential agreements, after that tied with Canal +, but "we have no strategic interest to sell off" hard-earned broadcasting rights, assured Mr. Rabuel. "We talk with each other, if things need to move forward, they will advance, and if they must remain in the state, it suits us very well," he summarized.

© 2019 AFP