Mediapro’s Téléfoot hit by internet service provider outage

Spanish production group and agency Mediapro’s Téléfoot service in France was hit by severe technical problems over the weekend, which meant OTT subscribers were unable to view matches.

The glitches occurred on Sunday as a result of a network failure at internet service provider, US telco CenturyLink. The outage affected a number of high-profile websites, streaming platforms and video games in the US and Europe.

Téléfoot OTT subscribers could not watch five matches as a result of the outage: Reims v Lille (at 13:00 CET), and Saint-Etienne v Lorient, Angers v Bordeaux, Nantes v Nîmes and Metz v Monaco (all at 15:00). There was also no commentary for multiplex coverage.

CenturyLink said it fixed the problem at around 17:00 on Sunday.

Téléfoot has apologised to its OTT subscribers and plans to provide some form of commercial compensation.

Mediapro launched Téléfoot on August 17. It created the service on the back of its €780m ($920m)-per-season acquisition of the bulk of Ligue 1 broadcast rights from 2020-21 to 2023-24. The agency is aiming to attract 3.5 million subscribers.

It has signed carriage deals with telcos Bouygues Telecom, Free and Altice. Mediapro and Altice have also agreed a co-broadcast deal for Uefa club competitions next season.

The agency has also reached agreement with internet entertainment giant Netflix to create a joint consumer offer incorporating Téléfoot.

In addition, it has agreed distribution on Samsung smart TV sets and Apple will offer the Téléfoot app on its platform and devices, including Apple TV, iPhones and iPads. The app can also now be downloaded on Android devices.

However, the agency has yet to agree carriage deals with France’s two main distribution platforms: Canal Plus and telco Orange.