Vivendi’s Canal+ has acquired all the broadcasting rights for the Premier League in France for a further three seasons.
Although it will also continue to show the Premier League in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it has lost out in Poland, where the rights have been acquired by NENT Group.
Les Echos reports that although Canal+ historically held the rights in France, it lost them to RMC Sport in 2015 but then recovered them in 2018 for the seasons 2019-2022, paying around €115 million a year, or the same as RMC paid in 2015.
In May 2019 Canal+ said it would share the rights with RMC.
While no figure for the latest rights acquisition has been revealed, Les Echos believes it is less than previously.
Broadband TV News notes that last month Amazon secured the lion’s share of the rights to France’s Ligue 1 for the next three seasons.
Canal+ has threatened to boycott the competition as the deal it already has in place sees it paying much more to the French Professional Football League (LFP) than the reported €275 million a season by Amazon.