Mediapro ramps up French campaign with second division rights

Spanish broadcaster and producer Mediapro has ramped up its effort to carve out a significant slice of the French premium subscription video market by acquiring rights to second division football in the country.

Mediapro has been awarded the main package of second division rights by the French professional football league, the LFP, giving the Catalan media group the rights to air eight matches each Saturday at 19:00 for the three seasons from 2020 to 2024 alongside the best Ligue 1 matches.

Mediapro said that the award would complete and reinforce the content line-up of its planned TV channel for the French market, anchored in the rights to France’s top Ligue 1 football league that it acquired from under the nose of pay TV leader Canal+ in May in a major upset for the Vivendi-owned group.

Mediapro will also air eight matches per match-day from Ligue 1 from 2020.

In addition to Lot 1 – the main package of second division rights – Mediapro secured Lot 4, comprising the right to air magazine programmes from Tuesday to Friday.

Lot 2, comprising one live match on Saturdays at 15:00 along with playoffs and a Saturday magazine show, and Lot 3, comprising one live match on Mondays at 20:45 and a magazine programme, were awarded to BeIN Media.

The LFP secured a total of €64 million per season for all four packages.