Canal+ and beIN Sports are appealing to the highest French court in the long legal dispute with the French Professional Football League (LFP) regarding the contract signed with Amazon Prime Video in June 2021, a source close to the matter confirmed to AFP on Sunday, confirming a report from L’Equipe. In mid-January, the two channels, seeking over 660 million euros from the LFP for “abuse of discrimination,” saw their demands rejected following two rulings from the Paris Court of Appeal.
They have been in conflict with the LFP since the award of TV rights for Ligue 1 to Prime Video, Amazon’s channel, in June 2021, after the Mediapro fiasco, which went bankrupt after acquiring the primary rights for 784 million euros per year in 2018.
Twenty judicial decisions in favor of the LFP
After rulings from the judicial court, the competition authority, and the commercial court, the Paris Court of Appeal issued two rulings in favor of the LFP confirming the judgments from September 2023. These were the 19th and 20th judicial decisions in their favor, as emphasized by the instance.
Both channels argued that the LFP had engaged in “abuse of discrimination” by granting Prime Video the broadcasting rights for 80% of the matches for the 2021-22 to 2023-24 seasons (previously held by Mediapro) for 250 million euros per season, while they were also required to broadcast matches from lot 3 (broadcasting two matches per L1 matchday), acquired in 2018 for 332 million euros per season. Initially winning lot 3 for the 2020-24 period, beIN Sports sublicensed its rights to Canal+ at the same price.
