French competition authority rejects Canal Plus, beIN sports venture

French competition authority rejects Canal Plus, beIN sports venture


   Editor
   | 10 June 2016






In a huge blow for Vivendi, the French anti-trust authority, the Autorité de la Concurrence, has rejected a move by the ailing media company to lift the ban on the exclusive broadcasting of premium sports channels on its Canal Plus subsidiary.

beIN 10 June 2016Canal Plus has appealed to gain clearance for the acquisition of exclusive broadcasting rights of all independent premium sports-themed channel, in order to conclude a contract on the exclusive distribution of the beIN Sports channel through France. Such a move would have given the two a combined share of around 80% of sports broadcasting in France.

In arriving at its judgement the Autorité de la concurrence noted that in the upstream market of sports rights acquisition, as in 2012, Canal Plus and beIN Sports hold the broadcasting rights of almost all popular sports competitions in particular League 1 football. This it said had created a market structure, close to a duopoly despite the acquisition of English Premier League's rights by the Altice which the authority regarded as an isolated experience.

Ultimately the authority believed that the market was characterised by the dominance of Canal Plus and that the pay-TV firm had not proved the emergence of a sufficient and sustainable competition. It added that its judgement would go towards enabling rival distributors as well as ISPs, to compete efficiently against Canal Plus channels under exclusive broadcasting, by being given the opportunity to access popular content.