POSTED: February 13th 2011
NewsUpdate
Thiriez warns sport about danger of TV cash cut after rugby wrangle
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
GENEVA/PARIS, Feb 14: Fears about a long-anticipated downturn in television rights fees for football have been raised by French league president Frédéric Thiriez. His warning follows the European Court of Justice’s ground-shaking doubt about Sky’s English dominance.
Thiriez was commenting on the general rights landscape after French broadcaster Canal+ reigned in its new offer for the country’s rugby Top 14. Professional sport has come to lean heavily on TV cash but the need for a drastic became inevitable once contracts came up for renewal following the global downturn.
The French football league puts its next contracts out to tender later this spring and Thiriez, despite his concerns, is trying to remain optimistic.
He said: “This [rugby offer] was a bad signal for all of sport. Sports coverage is the lifeblood of Canal+ and rugby is angry with them. Not us . . . yet. But we cannot ignore the fact that it is the rights to our game which help keel alive amateur football and other sports to the tune of E35m-a-year, thanks to the ‘Buffet Law.’”
Thiriez said he remained optimistic because Canal+ “needed” football but added: “While we believe we have an irreplaceable product which has a certain value which we should obtain, we cannot ignore the likely changes in the audio-visual marketplace.
“However, our championship is worth as much now as ever it was and we are going to improve the broadcasting packages in terms of scheduling, club visibility and so on.
“Everyone talks about the decline of football but it is still coming up with the best ratings on terrestrial TV – and still drives subscription sales in terms of pay-TV.
Canal+ pays E460m-a-year for top division matches up to 2012. Orange is paying E203m-a-year but has already announced it does not intend to bid again after next season.
The French league’s TV negotiating panel comprises Jean-Claude Dassier (Marseille president), Jean-Michel Aulas (Lyon president), Gervais Martel (Lens president), Olivier Sadran (Toulouse president), Michel Seydoux (Lille president), Bernard Caïazzo (Saint-Etienne director) and Jean-Pierre Louvel (players’ union president).
Keywords · Thiriez · French TV · TV cash · French league · rugby · Wilkinson · Top 14
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