France’s competition authority, l'Autorité de la Concurrence, has blocked an exclusive carriage deal between Canal Plus and pay-television rival beIN Sports.
In February, Canal Plus agreed to become the official carriage partner for beIN Sports’ channels in a five-year deal, from 2016 to 2020. However, the regulator said today that the deal contravened a condition, introduced when TPS and CanalSat merged in 2012, that Canal Plus would not enter exclusive carriage deal. The authority said that "the circumstances of law or fact have not changed significantly since 2012."
Canal Group said in a statement that it would "have to work on alternative solutions to stop the losses at the French Canal Plus channels."
The regulator was originally due to rule on the deal by the end of May, but delayed its decision after saying that Canal Plus had “brought new proposals” to the table.
However, earlier this week, reports emerged that France’s media regulator, the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel, had questioned aspects of the agreement.
The CSA, in a confidential opinion, said that the deal could lead to the two parties agreeing not to compete for future sports-rights packages, according to the BFM Business news service. The regulator also raised doubts about the compatibility of the agreement with Canal Plus’s existing exclusive carriage deal with the French division of pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport.
The CSA added that the structure of the agreement could mean that beIN Sports is less willing to agree sublicensing deals with free-to-air broadcasters.
Vivendi-owned Canal Plus, which broadcasts domestic Ligue 1 football coverage amongst a range of top properties, was keen to strike a deal in order to stem losses that have been generated since beIN Sports entered the market in 2012 with an aggressive bidding strategy for sports rights.