Foot Plus, French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus’s pay-television football channel, will close at the end of the 2011-12 season, according to l’Equipe.
The service is being shut down because Canal Plus lost rights for the Uefa Champions League, from 2012-13 to 2014-15, and the French Ligue 1, from 2012-13 to 2015-16 to rival pay-television broadcaster Al Jazeera. These rights are currently key content for the service. Customers can access matches on the channel via a regular subscription or pay-per-view.
Foot Plus also shows Uefa Europa League games. Uefa, European football's governing body, has not yet awarded rights in France for the Europa League for the next cycle, beginning next season.
Foot Plus service was reported to be loss-making despite having about one million subscribers.
Canal Plus director of sport Cyril Linette said the broadcaster would have to make some staff cutbacks.
“Next season we will need fewer consultant freelancers,” he said. “With regard to our journalists, the situation is different. They will continue to be present at all Ligue 1 matches so they are able to comment or produce summaries for our magazines.”
On Monday, the Ligue de Football Professionnel, the French football league, turned down Canal Plus’s bid for the remaining Ligue 1 rights for 2012-13 to 2015-16 and announced it had entered exclusive talks with pay-television broadcaster Al Jazeera.
Last June, Al Jazeera entered the French market by acquiring a package of Ligue 1 rights, with Canal Plus purchasing four other packages. In December, Al Jazeera outbid Canal Plus for Champions League rights in France.
In an effort to boost its depleted football portfolio, Canal Plus bid for rights for the Coupe de la Ligue, French football’s league cup, a tournament that had previously attracted little interest from the broadcaster. However, on Monday incumbent rights-holder, public-service broadcaster France Télévisions, renewed its rights for the competition in a four-year deal, from 2012-13 to 2015-16.