Impending carriage negotiations, rather than direct competition between operators, boosts Ligue 2

The increase of 190 per cent in the value of the rights to France’s second football division, Ligue 2, was unusual in that it was not driven by direct competition between players in the market. There was none. It was driven by the need of two operators – Mediapro and beIN Media – to strengthen their channel content ahead of difficult carriage talks with third party-distributors next year.