Mediapro late in France: concern from Ligue 1 clubs

Waiting for developments in Italy regarding Serie A, Mediapro is preparing to land in France with its alloy channel. In fact, the Chinese-Spanish group has succeeded in the Alps acquire most of the lots available for Ligue 1 TV rights (8 games out of 10 per day) for the period 2020-2024. An important change for all French fans, who had allowed the Spanish agency to unseat Canal Plus with an investment of 780 million euros per season. And thanks to the contracts stipulated with Bein Sport and Free, there was even a remarkable figure of 1.153 million.

The landing of Mediapro in France is taking place with a few hitches however, as reported by the Corriere dello Sport, which refers to an indiscretion by L’Equipe. It is still to be named general manager, assignment that would have been defined a month and a half ago. The choice fell in August on Julian Bergeaud, but his work has not yet actually begun because he waits for the finalization of the notice, equal to 3 months, necessary to definitively close his relationship with Discovery.

Furthermore, Mediapro should have made its members known by the end of September organization chart for France, but still no communication about it has arrived. Few updates also regarding the progress of the realization of a channel dedicated to Ligue 1.

Among the questions still to be clarified are those relating to the need for to make an agreement with the Superior Audiovisual Council, the choice of one seat and the installation of some technical infrastructures, necessary for the transmission of the channel dedicated to the maximum French championship.

There are those who are starting to highlight their concerns. Among these is Jean-Michel Aulas, president of Lyon, as well as other executives from other clubs who would begin to wonder what the guarantees presented by Mediapro were at the time of the acquisition.