Canal+ Set To Launch Premier League & Top 14 Digital Channels
Canal+, a French premium television channel, is set to launch dedicated digital channels to the broadcast of both the English Premier League and The Top 14 French professional rugby union games.
The French-pay television broadcaster is not planning on offering the channels for purchase on an individual basis but instead providing them at no additional cost to current Canal+ Sport customers. Although not yet finalized, Canal+ is expected to pursue the addition of several more sport-specific channels, including Formula 1.
It is understood that the Premier League’s weekly magazine broadcast, Premier League World, will be shown on the new Canal+ channel. And The Top 14 channel can offer Saturday afternoon match highlights as a lead up to the broadcast on the Sunday evening prime-time match.
“Our subscribers were asking to consume sport differently. Canal+ channels, with programming that covers cinema, entertainment series, and sport, did not allow fans of rugby or English football to find their content,” stated Marketing and Commercial Manager for Canal+, Christophe Pinard-Legry, to French sports paper L’equipe.
“We are therefore changing the way in which we present and broadcast by presenting them by competition on MyCanal.”
Currently, Canal Plus shares the rights of the Premier League in France with Altice-owned RMC Sport. Although Canal Plus obtained the solo rights from 2019–20 through 2021–22 for just over €90m ($98.6m) per year, they have now entered in a shared partnership with Altice earlier this year.
Canal Plus’ four-year agreement with The Top 14 begins this season and runs through 2022–23 for €97m per year.
Both channels will be available to Canal Plus subscribers beginning on December 26th, streaming on MyCanal. The current Canal+ Sport package costs €34.90 per month.
Depending on the success of Canal Plus’ foray into sport-specific digital channels, we should expect the addition of a wide variety of sporting leagues in the near future.
