Canal+ in counter-attack on football. On Wednesday evening, the encrypted channel was almost a full house by winning all the broadcasting rights for the European football cups from 2024 and until 2027. This concerns the Champions League (C1), which will inaugurate at that time a new formula, the Europa League (C3) and the Europa League Conference (C4). The only downside: the unencrypted broadcast, over the same period, of the Champions League final. Canal+ was competing, but it was M6 that won it for around 4 million euros per year according to the Team. The Vivendi subsidiary will still be able to offer it to its paying subscribers.
always according to l’Equipe, Canal+ has aligned the zeros to recover these rights against Amazon, BeIn Sports or RMC Sport: 480 million euros per season, an increase of 25% compared to their current price. It must be said that the Champions League caused the highest audiences for Canal + last season, bringing together an average of 1.6 million viewers. The encrypted channel, if it has always kept an interest in the prestigious C1, seemed to lose interest in football lately to focus on motor sports. Blame it on the psychodrama of French football rights: after the Mediapro fiasco, Canal + was beaten to the post by Amazon in the spring of 2021. The channel, at war with the Professional Football League (LFP), still considers overpaying for the two matches a day of Ligue 1 (332 million euros per season) which it finds itself obliged to broadcast until 2024.
Champions League new version
“Very very happy for our subscribers and our teams and very proud to announce that Canal+ has just won the broadcast of the entire Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League for 2024-2027”, in any case declared the president of the Canal+ group, Maxime Saada, on his Twitter account when the results were announced. The new format of the Champions League will see 36 clubs compete, against 32 currently, which will be divided into four groups of nine teams competing in a mini-championship to qualify for the round of 16. More matches therefore, more French clubs (there should be three insured against two currently), without counting on the project of mini-tournament of opening revealed by the Team and pitting four major European clubs against each other: Canal+ has offered itself a revitalized Champions League running from August to the end of May.
Among all these matches, Canal+ may also choose to authorize the broadcasting of some by competitors, in particular its partner BeIn Sports. The two chains had already recovered, in 2019, the main batches of the C1 for 2021-2024. RMC Sport, broadcaster of the C1 since 2018, also remains co-broadcaster until 2024. Finally, the encrypted channel already exclusively broadcasts the entire English Premier League until the 2024-2025 season. Waiting for another suspense match: the next call for tenders for the rights to French football, expected next year.