The uncertainty over Orange’s distribution strategy, in offering its premium channels exclusively to its ADSL subscribers, delayed negotiations for several months and is likely to have been the reason for the deal being limited to just one season. The French competition authority has recommended that Orange’s strategy be allowed for only “one or two years”.
The enforced suspension of marketing Orange’s premium services over eight weeks between March and May earlier this year resulted in Orange adding just 30,000 new pay-TV customers in the last quarter, compared with 230,000 in the first three months of the year.
Sportfive has yet to agree a deal in the Netherlands, where pay-channels Sport1 and Eredivisie Live both made offers considerably below the agency’s expectations.