Canal+ publishes five sports channels in Africa. To feed these channels
, you have acquired the rights to numerous competitions. Can you give us some key figures on what this represents
? CANAL+ SPORT is a package of five sports channels that broadcasts more than 80 competitions per year. That's 7,500 hours of live programming.
It is a very rich and varied offering, including soccer, of course, with the biggest European leagues, notably the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, EPL, La Liga, Ligue 1, and African leagues, but also the biggest global competitions: basketball with the NBA, athletics with the Diamond League, tennis, golf, Formula 1, and, more recently, Moto GP.
The duration of the rights we acquire varies depending on the rights holders, but generally ranges from 3 to 5 years.
Canal+ is often criticized for acquiring exclusive rights to the sports it broadcasts, thereby preventing national channels from broadcasting competitions that would be of value to the national population. How do you respond to these criticisms?
CANAL+ aims to offer the best French-language sports programming through its pay TV service, which is available in more than 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Major events such as the World Cup, the African Cup of Nations, the Olympic Games, and many others are always available to watch free-to-air.
That's why all these competitions are generally available free of charge on national channels.
The various pay TV channels, for their part, offer a different package consisting of exclusivity, completeness, live coverage, exceptional features, and magazines. They provide a complementary offering aimed at enthusiasts.
How are you organized to ensure the broadcast of competitions that are not produced by the organizers?
There are very few competitions that are not produced.
But in a few rare cases, we do produce our own images.
This is the case for the Ivorian League, the first soccer championship we produce in Africa, and certain boxing matches, for example, or for certain very special events.
The Africa Cup of Nations is coming up. You have acquired exclusive French-language pay TV rights. Do you already have an idea of the system you will put in place?
We are very pleased to be able to offer our subscribers the 2019 Total Africa Cup of Nations, the biggest sporting event in Africa this year.
Our coverage must therefore be worthy of the event: in addition to live broadcasting of the entire competition, we promise to be as close to the action as possible, with high-quality analysis and commentary from our journalists and consultants.
On the CANAL+ SPORT 1 channel, the CAN starts even before kick-off!
From the end of May, we will be offering our magazine EN ROUTE POUR LA CAN, which really highlights the strengths of the teams involved and provides projections on the qualities and weaknesses of each team.
You also produce numerous programs such as Talents d'Afrique and CANAL NBA. How are these programs important from an editorial point of view?
At the risk of repeating myself, the DNA of CANAL+ Sport really lies in the quality of its journalists and consultants. All our programs are benchmarks on the continent thanks to this constantly renewed commitment to excellence, and it is our subscribers who say it best.
So when you talk about Talents d'Afrique, Le 11 d'Europe, or Canal NBA, you're referring to exactly what our subscribers expect from us: to see and enjoy sports in a different way, beyond simply broadcasting matches.
Which sports are most popular with your subscribers in Africa?
Today, our subscribers are big consumers of sports in general.
They really appreciate our diversity. Of course, soccer remains the major sport, as in many countries, but then we can say that basketball and combat sports are close behind.
Read the full report: sports rights in French-speaking Africa