Canal Plus feels Ligue 1 is overpriced

French pay TV broadcaster Canal Plus has come forward to say that it believes football rights are being overvalued and it will not pay too much for the next Ligue 1 contract.

Jean-Bernard Levy, the chairman of Vivendi, the media group that owns CanalPlus, said cuts had to be made to content acquisitions, which include the EUR 600 million yearly fee paid currently for Ligue 1 rights.

The presidents of clubs such as Lyon, Marseille and Lens have come to the defense of their product. Jean-Michel Aulas of Lyon said the rights from the 2008-09 season should be worth at least EUR 750 million.

"When you subscribe to Canal Plus, it's for the football first of all and secondly for the films," said Marseille's Pape Diouf. "Without Ligue 1, Canal Plus is Canal minus."

The league has been wary about a possible drop in rights value since Canal Plus' merger with rival TPS reduced competition for rights. The league looked into extending the next rights contract from three years to five, but the plan was rejected by France's competition watchdog.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.