French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has been buoyed by a decision by France’s competition authority, Autorité de la Concurrence, to ease rules that had sought to limit its market share.
The regulator has made the move in recognition of increased competition in the French media market, with Canal Plus losing money and subscribers to video-on-demand platforms such as Netflix and Amazon, along with facing a substantial challenger in the sports rights market through the emergence of Altice-owned pay-television platform SFR Sport.
These competitors are not covered by restrictions applied to Canal Plus in 2012, which targeted the distribution of thematic channels and video-on-demand services following the merger by parent company Vivendi of TPS and CanalSatellite, two pay-television operators.
The regulator has elected to remove the majority of the restrictions placed on Canal Plus, with the remainder now set to expire at the end of 2019, instead of mid-2022. Among the main measures of the new agreement, the BFMBusiness website said CanalSat will now have the exclusive right to market premium channels such as beIN Sports and SFR Sport.
However, if a telecommunications operator asks to market such a channel, then CanalSat “will have the obligation to conclude an agreement” with this operator. Responding to the announcement yesterday (Thursday), Canal Plus said it “took note” of the decision, adding that it reflects a “partial account” taken by the regulator of past turmoil and the future in the market for pay and free-to-air television, marked by the “rapid emergence of strong competitors” particularly active in the acquisition of audiovisual content.
The ruling comes after Canal Plus had differing results with two major sports rights properties last month. The broadcaster agreed a three-year extension to its rights deal with the Formula One motor-racing championship, which will run from 2018 to 2020.
However, SFR Sport secured exclusive rights to the Uefa Champions League and Europa League club football competitions from the 2018-19 season, ousting Canal Plus and beIN Sports as the rights-holder through to the 2020-21 season.