By signing an “exclusive distribution agreement”, the two chains want to end a ruinous competition. It is urgent: Canal + has seen from more than 400 000 subscribers in 2015 while Bein Sports accuse losses of 250 million euros.
Fusion, redemption, equity participation … For weeks the press was echoing an imminent rapprochement between Canal + and Bein Sports, the two main actors pay TV in France on sport. This will eventually make a minimum – and it was hard to see how it could be otherwise, just from a legal point of view: for five years, Canal + will become the “exclusive distributor” Bein Sports on platforms like Canalsat and TV networks Free, SFR or Bouygues. On the web (specialists talk about OTT for “over the top” ), the Qatari continue against by ensuring its own marketing.
The agreement with still blurred wants win-win: attract customers with new offers oscillating between 13 and 40 euros per month. The (big) football fans could well be offered or packs Ligue 1 Champions League, the broken today competitions on both channels and therefore require two subscriptions. Current customers of Canal + or Bein Sports and are very happy like that, nothing should change – the Qatari remain at 13 euros a month. The deal must still be submitted to the Competition Authority, to which it will demonstrate that the PACS between these two heavyweights of pay TV will not reduce the revenue of French football (secure until 2020) or swell the bill for the consumer. . Verdict in April, and this is far from a foregone
Still, the agreement carries a strong message: everyone wants to stop spending. Launched four years into a war that has encouraged rampant inflation of TV rights – most battles have also been won by Bein Sports, Canal + that stripped of much of its “premium” events (first choice finals of the Champions League, we have seen PSG and Chelsea, Spanish football, Italian and German, handball, Wimbledon …), the two groups have decided to bury the hatchet. A peace of the brave interview already at the last tender Top 14 rugby, where the Qatari had finally decided not to bid.
To motivate this approximation, Vincent Bolloré, the new big boss of Vivendi, Canal +, pulled out the heavy artillery. In a statement issued on February 18, his group reveals that “Canal + (1) losing money since 2012″ – the same year Bein Sports burst onto the French market, like , yours. Brace yourself: In 2015, “they record a loss (…) of 264 million euros, 76 million more than in 2014.” Further: “this threatens the entire Canal + group, which employs 8,200 people. (…) Vivendi can not afford indefinitely bear the losses of Canal + France. “ Close the ban. Results releases memory, rarely has it.
Moreover questionable analysis, as noted BFM Business, especially as all the Canal + (with Canalsat, Canalplay, StudioCanal, international …) remains largely profitable. This ultra-alarmist allows Bollore to justify its subsequent recovery in muscular hand of the encrypted channel last summer – which has nevertheless not stopped the flight of subscribers in the second half, 400,000 left on all of the year. Vivendi’s boss and also puts pressure on the Competition Authority to allow the alliance.
These new subscription offers are calling others. A small revolution is looming. Accused of being too expensive (40 euros per month) compared to Bein and other Netflix, the bouquet of Canal + (1) could also be sold to the card. That is, according to our information, what we already offer to people who want to unsubscribe today. To keep them addicted to sports, you amputate the Canal + Cinéma and Canal + TV costs 29 euros per month. Conversely, the crazy Seventh allergic art round or oval ball are deprived Canal + Sport and Canal + famility, for a similar price. The end of an era?
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