Canal+: €300m per year over five years for the exclusive distribution of beIN Sports France channels

The French pay-TV group Canal+ will pay €300m per year, or €1.5bn over the next five years (2016-2021) for the exclusive distribution of the beIN Sports France pay-TV channels, according to "industry sources", announced the French BFM Business channel on 24/03/2016.

The supervisory board of Vivendi authorised the board of directors of its subsidiary Canal+ to enter into an exclusive distribution agreement with the pay-TV group beIN Sports France, on 18/02/2016. Canal+ was suspended from proceeding further by the French Competition Authority, which must rule on the lifting of injunctions taken against Vivendi and the Canal+ group before the end of April 2016, within its decision on the exclusive takeover of TPS and Canal Satellite.

In comparison, Canal+ will pay €50m per year to Eurosport for the exclusive distribution of Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 on the CanalSat satellite pay-TV package. The Canal+ group posted a turnover of €5.5bn in 2015, up 1.1%, mainly thanks to its pay-TV operations abroad.

The Competition Authority still has to approve the lifting of injunctions facing the…