Vincent Bolloré, chief executive of media company Vivendi, has held talks about agreeing a carriage deal with, and acquiring a stake in, pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports France – according to a report in French newspaper Libération.
Negotiations began in mid-January, the report said, with the deal being proposed by Bolloré in an attempt to safeguard Vivendi’s pay-television channel Canal Plus – a major sports broadcaster in France that has suffered since the emergence of beIN Sports France.
However, a source close to beIN told TV Sports Markets that the focus of discussions is about an exclusive distribution deal to make the beIN Sports channels available on CanalSat, Canal Plus's satellite platform. As part of a deal, it is understood that Vivendi will have the option to take a minority, non-controlling stake in beIN Sports France.
The source stressed that beIN is not looking to sell its channels. Any deal is expected to have to be ratified by the French competition authority, the Autorité de la Concurrence, and could take months to be finalised.
BeIN Sports France has about 2.5m subscribers. BeIN has embarked on an aggressive rights acquisition strategy since launching in France, but is now reportedly losing between €250m and €300m each year. Canal Plus is also losing significant numbers of subscribers.