A French court has ruled in favour of BeIN Sports in a dispute with Canal+ over the value of a Ligue 1 football contract.
BeIN had licensed package 3 from Ligue 1, allowing the broadcast of two weekly matches, on Saturday at 9pm and Sunday at 5.05pm between 2020/21 and 2023/24 at a cost to Canal of €332 million per season.
However, following the Mediapro debacle, in which the rights holder acquired 80% of available matches, only to pull out of the agreement, the majority of rights were then snapped up by Amazon Prime for €250m a season.
Subsequently, Canal and BeIN contested the value of their two games and also began a joint set of proceedings against the LFP.
Canal, which had been a rights holder of French top-flight football for over 30 years, announced it was dropping coverage, but has been forced to continue showing the games following a series of court actions.
In the latest ruling, the Versailles Court of Appeal sided with BeIN Sports in its dispute with Canal, supporting a previous ruling made by the Nanterre commercial court in June 2021.
Canal must now pay for the matches and adhere to the broadcast schedule under a penalty fine of €1 million.
