France: SFR acquires TV rights to both European Cups (€350m / season for 2018-2021)

The French telecommunications conglomerate SFR Group will pay around €350m per season for all the TV rights, valid in France, to the Champions League and the Europa League for the 2018-2021 cycle, according to multiple sources on 11/05/2017. The price of the TV rights of the European Cups in France would thus be multiplied by 2.12 compared to the previous cycle.

During the 2015-2018 period, Canal+, beIN Sports, and Groupe M6 are estimated to jointly pay nearly €165m per year for the TV rights, in France, to the two European Cups.

In France, the TV rights to the Champions League had already been multiplied by more than 2.5 over the previous three cycles:
• Canal+ and beIN Sports are the current rights holders of the Champions League for 2015-2018, with these rights acquired on 11/04/2014. beIN Sports is estimated to pay €90m per year and Canal+ €50m per year for their packages.
• Canal+ (€50m) and beIN Sports (€61m) jointly paid €111m to UEFA each season for the 2012-2015 Champions League rights.
• TF1 paid €25m per year for the best fixture per week, and Canal+ €29m for rights to…