Canal Plus, the pay-TV heavyweight, will continue its exclusive coverage of English soccer’s top-tier Premier League in several countries after renewing its rights deal through the 2027-28 season.
The deal covers the 2025-26 to 2027-28 rights cycle in France, Switzerland (French language only), the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Vietnam and will see the broadcaster air all 380 matches per season exclusively on its linear channels, as well as its streaming platform myCANAL and digital channel Canal Plus Premier League.
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Paul Molnar, chief media officer at the Premier League, said: “Canal Plus is an outstanding partner and has continued to deliver market-leading and innovative coverage across its established and new digital platforms. We look forward to Canal Plus continuing to be the home of the Premier League across these important territories.”
The Vivendi-owned broadcaster currently holds exclusive rights to Premier League action in France for the 2022-23 to 2024-25 cycle through a deal struck in July 2021. It also held the rights to the previous cycle from 2019-20 to 2021-22 after replacing Altice-owned RMC Sport, which held the rights from 2016-17 to 2018-19.
The deal bolsters Canal Plus’ soccer offering which includes France’s top-flight Ligue 1, UEFA Champions League, the Saudi Pro League, and D1 Arkema, the French women’s league.
Maxime Saada, chair and chief executive of Canal Plus Group, said: “We are delighted to have acquired the exclusive broadcast rights to the Premier League for several key regions of the group.
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By GlobalData“Above all, it is a source of great pleasure for our subscribers, who unanimously recognize the Premier League as the most competitive championship in Europe, with the best clubs and players on the planet involved.”
The rights deal comes days after Canal Plus lost another court case against the LFP, amid its long-running dispute in which it accused the country’s professional soccer body of abusing a dominant position during its last media rights tender for domestic Ligue 1 rights.
The case concerns Canal Plus’ attempts to terminate its own sub-licensing agreement with pay-TV rival BeIN Sports to show two Ligue 1 matches per week for the current cycle after objecting to the LFP’s decision to award online retail giant Amazon rights to the other eight games per match week for a cut-price of €250 million ($261 million) annually.
The LFP last week announced it will offer rights for the 2024-25 to 2028-29 seasons of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 after being granted permission by the French government to extend the length of its contracts from four to five campaigns.
The bid deadline for Ligue 1 rights has been set for October 17, while bids for Ligue 2 rights are required by October 20. Canal Plus is said to be in the running to bid for the rights despite its ongoing dispute.
Earlier this week, it was also reported that the Premier League is considering significant changes to its domestic television rights that could see 25% more matches broadcast live during the season.
The Daily Telegraph said as part of the shake-up, league executives are expected to offer broadcasters four additional televised matches on Sunday, including a new 6.30pm kick-off slot.
The proposal ends talks of the English top-flight challenging the UK’s traditional Saturday 3pm TV blackout while guaranteeing broadcasters at least 270 games per season out of the 380 played, up from the current 200 available.
The Premier League is set to go to market with a domestic tender process for the first time since 2018 after rolling over its existing agreements with pay-TV giants Sky and TNT Sports (formerly known as BT Sport) and online retail giant Amazon.
