France: "Arrival of RMC Sport has led to an increase in piracy, like beIN in 2012" (Médiamétrie)

"The arrival of RMC Sport on the pay-TV market in France has led to an increase in the piracy of sports programming, as was the case after the arrival of beIN Sports in France in 2012. It will be interesting to see if this phenomenon also applies to the cinema and TV series areas with the arrival of the OTT platforms of Disney, Apple and HBO," stated Frédéric Vaulpré, vice-president of Glance (ex-Euro Data TV Worldwide), the entity of the French polling institute Médiamétrie dedicated to international TV markets, at a conference organized by Sporsora on 27/11/2019.

The sports pay-TV bouquet RMC Sport (named SFR Sport before 03/07/2018) has been broadcasting the European football cups in France since the 2018-19 season.

In France, in 2018, each month the number of internet users who watched sports content on internet screens according to Médiamétrie's data is as follows:
• Pirate users: 1.78 million.
• beIN Sports legal users: 1.23 million.
• RMC Sport legal users: 434,000.

"There are popular misconceptions about piracy (sports programming). It's not just about young students…