The battle between the two satellite pay-TV platforms in France, TPS and CanalSatellite has taken an interesting twist with the news that Canal+ has won the exclusive rights to screen the French Soccer League (League 1) between 2005 and 2007. This means Canal+ will be able to screen three live matches a week, seven matches via PPV as well as a highlights/magazine type show. It also means that TPS will have no coverage of top league soccer in France. Previously, the two platforms had been sharing soccer rights, although Canal+ had screened the majority of soccer in recent years.

However, while the rights could give CanalSatellite a critical edge, they have not come cheap. The cost is a staggering 600 million euros ($798.6 million) per annum, a price, which was above most analyst expectations. Ironically, even though TPS lost out, some think they have emerged as the real winner in the whole process. Mike Hilton, a media equity analyst at UBS said in a research note, “TPS can lose up to 175k subscribers and still be better off without the rights. It will also have the flexibility to re-invest some of the 70 million euros ($93.1 million) cost savings into content and marketing. The strategic risk from the loss of soccer is mitigated by the high price paid by Canal+.”

According to Hilton, the costs are “likely to be split between the Canal+ Premium channel, and CanalSatellite”. The interesting factor now will be the performance of TPS. Satellite platforms have traditionally leveraged sports content is a key competitive advantage, so it will be interesting to see whether TPS can actually boost subscriber numbers without having top division soccer on its platform.