Paris (AFP)

Ligue 1 TV rights are officially on the market: the Professional Football League (LFP) is awaiting offers on February 1 for the buyback of matches abandoned by its broadcaster Mediapro, via a consultation launched on Tuesday, a procedure that Canal + could contest.

The epilogue is approaching for French football and its clubs, in great financial difficulty in the face of the health crisis and that of TV rights.

After terminating in December the contract binding it to the Sino-Spanish group Mediapro, unable to honor its promise of a windfall exceeding 800 million euros per year, the League resolved on Tuesday to publicly appeal for other broadcasters, via "two market consultations", one for Ligue 1 and the other for Ligue 2.

Interested operators, Canal + in the lead, therefore now have only ten days to put together a quantified offer on the lots of meetings involved, which run from February 5, 2021 until the end of the planned cycle, i.e. until to June 2024. The lots are close to those of the initial call for tenders of 2018, with in particular a "premium" lot composed of the Sunday evening posters, including the ten best of the season.

These four prizes for Ligue 1 and two prizes for Ligue 2 correspond only to the matches initially obtained by Mediapro, i.e. 80% of the matches of the two Championships.

- What position for Canal?

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Contrary to the wishes of the encrypted channel, they do not include the famous "lot N.3", currently broadcast by Canal + for 330 million euros annually and composed of 20% of Ligue 1 matches, including the poster of Saturday evening (9 p.m.).

The boss of the Vivendi group channel, Maxime Saada, had indeed positioned himself last week in favor of a real global call for tenders and not a consultation of this type, announcing in the columns of Figaro that he intended to "restore" his share of meetings, which Canal + broadcasts via a sub-license agreement signed with its partner beIN Sports.

But the League has a different analysis and does not intend to put these matches in competition, which leaves fear a challenge to Canal + in court and new legal battles in the coming weeks.

Asked Tuesday evening by AFP, the encrypted channel had not reacted to this announcement.

Under these conditions, will Canal + be inclined to apply during this consultation?

To date, it is the only one to have publicly expressed its interest in buying the TV rights to French football, even if other operators are sometimes cited by some observers.

Another important question: will the reserve prices that the League be able to set be reached on all the lots?

In a market for TV rights in sharp decline in recent months, the uncertainty has enough to thrill professional clubs, which are struggling for their survival.

- Financial emergency -

A success of this consultation would allow them to get off on the right foot, a few days before the highly anticipated Ligue 1 "Classic" between Marseille and Paris SG scheduled for February 7, even if future rights may be very far from the windfall. initial record of 1.217 billion euros annually (L1 and L2 combined) obtained during the initial call for tenders.

A failure of this procedure, at least on certain lots, would however further increase the financial pressure of French football.

This would force the League to reopen over-the-counter negotiations with potential buyers, an option initially considered but to which Canal + was not favorable.

Above all, this would oblige the LFP to act as a matter of urgency in a transitional broadcasting process for its vacant matches, and thus avoid the disastrous hypothesis of the "black screen", of non-broadcast matches.

For the time being, Téléfoot, the Mediapro channel, should only continue broadcasting the matches until January 31 at the latest, even if it has said it is ready to go further.

Apart from the Téléfoot option, other alternatives are available to the League: Canal + has offered a "pay per view" retransmission, and several free channels have expressed interest in broadcasting matches without counterpart (TF1, M6, France Télévisions).

But will the LFP go so far as to offer its matches for free?

© 2021 AFP