Canal Plus has confirmed that it has agreed a five-year deal, from 2016 to 2020, to become the exclusive carriage partner in France for rival pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports’ channels.
The draft agreement requires the approval of France’s competition authority, l'Autorité de la Concurrence.
The deal was announced after Vivendi-owned Canal Plus unveiled better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter of 2015, with a loss of €12m ($13m) in the three months through to December 31.
“Vivendi is on the right track, but we have one major issue to tackle today – pay-TV in France,” Canal Plus chief executive Arnaud de Puyfontaine said. “Canal Plus has had to face new domestic and foreign players and had to invest more and more in both sports and fiction.”
French newspaper Le Monde said yesterday (Thursday) that the carriage deal with beIN Sports could lead to Vivendi acquiring a stake in the pay-television broadcaster, although complications over competition regulations meant that a full takeover was not an option at this time.
Vivendi has been pursuing the exclusive carriage deal in an effort to safeguard Canal Plus, which has lost sports rights since the emergence of beIN Sports in France.