TV rights: Mediapro expected at the cash desk, French football at a turning point - France 24

Paris (AFP)

The deadline is crucial: the broadcaster Mediapro, supposed to honor on Saturday a new payment of TV rights for Ligue 1, could dry up the deadline after having already done so in October, a nightmarish scenario for French football more and more in France. bark.

This is the next episode in the conflict between the Professional Football League (LFP) and the Sino-Spanish group, which wants to renegotiate downward the amount due for this season for the L1 (780 M EUR): Mediapro refused to pay the 172 million euros due in early October and has issued no sign to believe that he will pay the amount due on Saturday, of an amount approaching.

"However, we must wait, perhaps a last turnaround is still possible, even if this hypothesis is very, very thin," said a source with knowledge of the file.

What will happen if Mediapro objects a second refusal?

Technically, the LFP will have to return to a banking establishment to renegotiate a new loan after the one taken out in October.

"And that can be complicated", estimates Luc Arrondel, economist and research director at CNRS.

Because the debt of the LFP, which also contracted a state guaranteed loan of 224.5 million euros in May in the face of the early end of the season due to the coronavirus pandemic, would start to be considerable.

- "Determining" -

"The LFP has already taken out a loan, they are already in debt, and the liquidity needs are immediate. The problem is that the budgets of French clubs are based on what they are supposed to receive in TV rights" with the contract Mediapro record, recalls Luc Arrondel.

If the broadcaster persisted in its strategy, that of the LFP could however perhaps evolve.

For more than a month, the LFP and Mediapro have been engaged in a confidential conciliation process, arbitrated by a judicial representative, Marc Sénéchal.

This procedure, initiated on October 19, can theoretically last four months.

A period a priori far too long in view of the urgent cash flow of the clubs, moreover affected by the lack of ticketing due to the closed-door health measures.

But this procedure does not prevent the LFP from terminating the contract.

"It is also proof that (the leaders of the LFP) wanted so far to get out of this crisis by negotiation", assures a source close to the instance.

The LFP could therefore change its approach and start turning to Mediapro shareholders to find a way out.

"This is one of the hypotheses", assures this source.

Completely silent on this issue, an assumed choice also dictated by the confidentiality required during a conciliation procedure, the attitude of the LFP remains in any case unfathomable.

For the time being, even if according to Mediapro the "question of deadlines does not make much sense" because of the conciliation, the broadcaster seems indeed bound to pay.

"The next horizon is contractual, it is December 5. It is a decisive horizon point for all parties in the course of the negotiations," said another source with knowledge of the case.

It is therefore a crucial step that could shake things up in a totally stuck conflict.

According to this source, Mediapro has requested a rebate of between 150 and 200 million euros this season, which the LFP refused.

The dialogue is not broken, but it seems complicated as the positions are far apart.

- "Ubuesque situation" -

On the other hand, the hypothesis of a merger between Mediapro and the former historic broadcaster Canal + has taken the lead in the wing.

Mediapro has just summoned Canal + to the Paris Commercial Court, accusing it of wanting to oust it from the market.

The Sino-Spanish group has never managed to reach an agreement with the encrypted channel for the distribution of its Telefoot channel.

A closed door which prevents Mediapro from swelling the number of its subscribers, which reached in mid-October nearly 600,000 according to the Catalan group, far from the 3.5 million needed to make its contract profitable.

"For me, the Mediapro affair is over, in the sense that Mediapro will not be the broadcaster of Ligue 1 in the next four years", slice Jean-Pascal Gayant, professor of economics at the University of Le Mans.

"The litigation is likely to be long and bloody, we are awaiting the outcome of this ubiquitous situation. Basically, the League is only waiting for one thing, which is that Mediapro throws in the towel and we can start again a call for tenders, so that Canal + can take over most of the TV rights packages, ”he predicts.

© 2020 AFP