Paris (AFP)
A brand and recognized commentators: Mediapro, new broadcaster of Ligue 1 football, on Tuesday lifted part of the doubts on its future channel by revealing its name, "Telefoot", the fruit of an original partnership with TF1 and its famous magazine dedicated to the round ball.
The Téléfoot channel will start broadcasting in August, when the championships resume. The new official calendar of French football, shaken by the coronavirus crisis, provides for a restart of the L1 on August 23, one day after the L2.
The Sino-Spanish group Mediapro, which won the broadcasting rights for more than 80% of the matches of L1 and L2 for the period 2020-2024 and for a record amount of more than 800 million euros annually, created the surprise by joining forces with TF1 to launch its channel.
Mediapro has notably concluded a license agreement for the Telefoot brand, and will thus be able to capitalize on the notoriety and reputation of the magazine of TF1, a benchmark for football fans. "There is nothing more traditional and strong than Telefoot as a brand," said Mediapro boss Jaume Roures, during an online press conference.
- Margotton-Lizarazu at the microphone -
The newcomer of PAF will also be able to rely on the soccer stars of TF1: the emblematic duo of commentators Grégoire Margotton and Bixente Lizarazu, at work in particular during the Mondial-2018 won by the Blues by Didier Deschamps, will officiate on the Mediapro channel for around 20 L1 matches on Sunday evening, including the "ten most beautiful posters of the season".
The magazine Téléfoot, which will remain broadcast on TF1 on Sunday at 11:00 a.m., was launched in 1977, making it one of the oldest PAF broadcasts.
Presented by Grégoire Margotton since 2018, the show remains a benchmark for many football fans, even if it has been competing for ten years by the Canal Football Club on Sunday evening on Canal +.
In addition to the use of the brand, the agreement provides for "an editorial content production partnership": TF1 will provide the Téléfoot channel with several programs, including a magazine on Ligue 1, on Sundays from 12 noon to 1 p.m., "Telefoot vintage ", which will bring viewers back to the great moments of French football, and" La daily - Telefoot ", a digital version of the magazine.
TF1 will also produce pre-match and post-match programs with Mediapro, according to Mr. Roures.
- Target: 3.5 million subscribers -
For TF1, this agreement is timely because it will give an additional aura to its magazine Telefoot, and generate additional revenue, even as the group is faced with the fall of the advertising market caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
Asked about Europe 1, TF1 Sports Director François Pellissier did not disclose the financial aspects of the agreement and said he did not include the possibility for the magazine Telefoot to broadcast extracts from the L1.
For his part, Mr. Roures stressed that this "strategic" agreement could be extended to other aspects "in the more or less near future", such as advertising management, or the possibility of jointly acquiring rights of broadcasting, playing on "complementarity" between pay TV (Mediapro) and free-to-air (TF1).
Mediapro thus begins to unveil its device for its launch in France, less than three months before kick-off, after a long wait which had fueled a certain nervousness in the French football community.
Mr. Roures confirmed that the subscription to the Telefoot channel would cost around 25 euros per month. And he promises future announcements, in particular to specify the launch date and detail any distribution agreements with telecom operators.
The Sino-Spanish group will also present its detailed program on June 11 to Ligue 1 clubs.
"We will get to know them and we hope it will go as well as with BeIN", the current broadcaster with Canal +, said Monday Bernard Caiazzo, president of Premier League, main union of L1 clubs.
Mediapro has big ambitions for Telefoot: it targets 3.5 million subscribers, a level necessary for the operation to be profitable.
© 2020 AFP