November 21 – Spanish rights agency Mediapro is undergoing something of a resurgence after coming under scrutiny for its links to the South American firms that were behind much of the corruption in the football rights market that saw more than 40 individuals indicted in the US.
The group took a major position in the French market, beating long time broadcast rights holder Canal + to a four-year deal for Ligue1 costing €780 million a year and immediately announced plans for its own broadcast channel in France.
Mediapro chief Jaume Roures has again reiterated that he has no intention of sharing rights with Canal +, saying: “We discard the idea to sublicense some of our rights.
If we resell a portion of the rights to Canal +, for example, we would impoverish the offer of our own channel and this is not the goal.”
Roures has said the monthly subscription will likely be €25 per month with a target of 3 million subcribers. “And with 4 million, we would be profitable,” he said.
Mediapro’s premium football channel will launch as a 24 hour channel seven days a week when the new rights contract starts in 2020.
The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) secured a 60% increase in value (to €1.38 billion per season) for the domestic rights to Ligue 1 through deals with Mediapro and pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports.
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