Canal Plus open to broadcasting Ligue 1, channel’s president announces | OneFootball

Within France, Canal Plus is seen as something of a silver bullet that will cure its degrading financial situation. Ligue 1 is struggling. Now broadcast by Ligue 1 Plus, a league-owned channel, earnings are down for clubs. It comes in the wake of multiple botched TV rights deals, including the last one, negotiated with DAZN but abandoned just one year into the five-year cycle.

Canal Plus is the historic broadcaster of the French top-flight and are seen as the ones that could inject fresh money into a league in desperate need of financial relief. The broadcaster are open to getting back involved, as its president, Maxime Saada, told L’Équipe.

“Ligue 1 Plus will certainly lose subscribers over the summer period and so return to strong growth upon the resumption of the league, the channel will need everything on its side to succeed. It is in these moments that Canal could be a useful, even a precious, partner,” says Saada.

The key distinction here is that Canal Plus are not talking about becoming the broadcaster, but rather a distributor for the pre-existing Ligue 1 Plus infrastructure. Saada added that he currently values the ‘product’ that is the French top-flight at just €100m. “It is an editorial success, but not an economic one,” he says.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle