French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has claimed a first with its coverage of Friday’s final of club rugby union competition the Top 14, while Vincent Bolloré is reportedly set to quit as chairman later this summer.
The 2015-16 Top 14 final between Racing 92 and Toulon was played at Spanish Liga football club Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium due to Uefa Euro 2016 taking place in France.
Racing 92 secured a 29-21 win in the clash, with the league claiming a club rugby attendance record of 99,124 for the game.
Canal Plus used the game to team up with broadcast services specialist Euromedia and US audio technology company Dolby. It said it set a world-first by making the Top 14 final the inaugural Ultra HD live sports broadcast with Dolby Atmos sound.
Canal Plus subscribers with access to telecommunications company Orange’s fibre service were able to access the special broadcast of the game.
Meanwhile, French newspaper Le Figaro said Bolloré will step down this summer in order to focus his attention on French media company Vivendi, the parent company of Canal Plus. Bolloré is also chairman of Vivendi and Le Figaro said he is expected to find a place on the Canal Plus board for his son Yannick, chief executive and chairman of communications company Havas, either this year or next at the latest.
Earlier this month, Canal Plus was hit by the news that France’s competition authority, l'Autorité de la Concurrence, blocked an exclusive carriage deal between it and pay-television rival beIN Sports.
In February, Canal Plus agreed to become the official carriage partner for beIN Sports’ channels in a five-year deal, from 2016 to 2020. However, the regulator said that the deal contravened a condition, introduced when TPS and CanalSat merged in 2012, that Canal Plus would not enter an exclusive carriage deal.
Canal Group said in a statement at the time that it would "have to work on alternative solutions to stop the losses at the French Canal Plus channels."