The French Football League (LFP) has confirmed that pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has put forward a revised approach for its coverage of Ligue 1, the top division of domestic club football.
The forthcoming 2016-17 season is the first of a new four-year rights window, under which Canal Plus will pay €540m ($592.9m) per season for its content.
In April 2014, Canal Plus acquired rights in France for the two main packages of the next cycle of domestic rights for Ligue 1, while rival pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports acquired the other four packages. The agreements will run for four seasons, from 2016-17 to 2019-20.
Canal Plus acquired packages one and two in the tender. Package one includes 28 first-choice matches, 10 second-choice games and 38 third-choice matches per season plus a Saturday and Sunday evening highlights programme. Package two includes 28 matches and a Sunday evening magazine programme.
However, French newspaper L’Équipe has said Canal Plus is seeking to change its Sunday night Ligue 1 schedule and broadcast two of its three main matches on the Canal Plus Sport channel.
“Canal Plus has informed us of its thinking on its distribution strategy with the opportunity to broadcast two matches on Canal Plus Sport,” Didier Quillot, executive general manager of the LFP, said. “We recalled the content of the call for tenders for the exposure of three games on Canal Plus. On schedules, Canal Plus asked us to have a kickoff on Sunday evening at 9pm, instead of 8.45pm as is stipulated in the contract.”