“Our championship is worth as much now as ever it was and we are going to improve the broadcasting packages in terms of scheduling, club visibility and so on,” said Thiriez. “Everyone talks about the decline of football but it is still coming up with the best ratings on terrestrial TV – and still drives subscription sales in terms of pay-TV.”
Ligue 1 currently receives €668 million ($888 million) per year in a four-year deal running from 2008-09 to 2011-12. Canal Plus pays €465m and rival pay-television operator Orange €203 million, but Orange has said it will not bid for live rights in the next auction. The LFP is set to issue a tender in April, having initially planned to do so in the autumn. It will participate in the tender itself for the first time through its new digital-terrestrial channel, C Foot, that will be launched this summer and which will be jointly owned by the LFP (20 per cent) and the French clubs (80 per cent.
Thiriez said Canal Plus “needed” football but also said: “While we believe we have an irreplaceable product which has a certain value which we should obtain, we cannot ignore the likely changes in the audio-visual marketplace”.
Earlier this month Canal Plus offered only €18 million per season for the top rugby division, the Top 14 – compared to the average €26m per season it pays in its current four-year deal, signed in 2007, and well down on the €50m per season the Top 14 had hoped for. Talks are continuing.