The French football league LFP has accepted defeat: despite having acquired 330,000 paying subscribers for its terrestrial football channel CFoot, it will hand back the licence at the end of the season.
During the past few weeks it became clear that the LFP (ligue de football professionnel) was contemplating an end to the digital terrestrial distribution of its pay-channel.
Bringing a mix of magazine programmes and second league live matches (the Ligue 2) was not enough to win enough paying subscribers to achieve a viable business model. On top of that, its competitors Canal+ and Al Jazeera Sports managed to acquire all first league live rights.
The LFP decision marks another setback for the future of pay-TV over the digital terrestrial network in France. Just recently, Nicolas de Tavernost, CEO of M6, questioned the future of pay-DTT.
Canal+ also has decided to hand back its DTT licence for the premium pay channel TPS Star, causing controversy with the media regulator CSA.
