2023-08-08 22:33:37
Karim Benzema is still present on the pitch. He even faced the team of Al-Shorta on August 2 with his new Saudi club Al-Ittihad. But watching the former French international was simply impossible from France: no broadcaster broadcast this friendly match. Fortunately for his fans, it should be different for the rest of the season since Canal + has won the broadcasting rights for the Saudi championship.
With the arrival of many players from European championships in the Middle East, the question was indeed on everyone’s lips: where to watch the matches, as the 2023-2024 season of the Saudi championship begins this Friday?
RMC’s bet not renewed, Canal + wins
Canal+ announced on Tuesday that it had acquired the rights to broadcast the Saudi Arabian Football Championship. The agreement runs “for the next two seasons” for France and Africa, specifies the press release from the group. However, it is impossible to know for the time being whether all the matches will be broadcast and which posters will be preferred.
A bet that RMC Sport has chosen not to repeat. If the channel had obtained the rights to broadcast all the matches of Al-Nassr after the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo in February, those of the 2023-2024 season did not seem to be a priority for the group. Contacted by Le Parisien before the Canal+ announcement, he declined to comment.
“RMC put the matches on Twitch”, explained to the Parisian a specialist from another French channel specializing in sport. But according to him the reason for this decline of RMC is twofold: the low spotif stake is combined with “the financial worries of the moment of their shareholder Patrick Drahi”.
“Not sure that the rights to this championship are worth very much. But it can’t get an audience. Having stars on a field is not everything, ”added this interlocutor, who did not even look to buy these rights. “We have other priorities,” claimed this regular in broadcasting rights negotiations.
Transfers and XXL salaries for XXS broadcasting
The long list of players is enough to make more than one football fan dream: Cristiano Ronaldo, N’Golo Kanté, Sadio Mané, Malcom, Riyad Mahrez, Fabinho, Jota, Seko Fofana, Allan Saint-Maximin or Édouard Mendy now have joins the Saudi Pro League for the upcoming season. The amounts of the transfers amount to up to 60 million euros for the Brazilian Malcolm, coming from the Zenith Saint-Petersburg.
The promise for these players? A staggering salary. Former Madrid players Benzema and Ronaldo will receive 200 million euros a year, while world champion N’Golo Kanté will pocket 100 million. Most of the other players will be able to claim an annual salary of between 14 and 25 million euros.
Abroad, broadcasts in the background
However, it is not only in France that the broadcasting of the Saudi Pro League appears to be a minor issue, which has not aroused the enthusiasm of broadcasters despite all the big names it displays.
In the Arab world, the case was quickly heard: it is the local streaming giant Shahid who has the rights. But no need to try to subscribe from France: if the platform is available from France, Shahid’s French catalog does not give you access to the Saudi Pro League, confirms the site to Parisian.
On the British side, SkySports already seems to be in the starting blocks to obtain the broadcasting rights for the Saudi championship, for which discussions must take place “this week”, according to The Sun. But streaming service DAZN is close to a deal, claims The Athletic. This negotiation would open a distribution of rights in the United Kingdom, but also in Germany and Austria.
In Spain or Brazil, no channel has yet acquired the broadcasting rights, which do not seem to interest the major sports media groups. Like RMC Sport, the channels that occasionally broadcast Cristiano Ronaldo’s matches did not wish to position themselves on the entire Saudi championship.
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