His name does not bring back good memories of French football. Jaume Roures, founder and boss of the audiovisual group Mediapro, shared his analysis of Ligue 1 TV rights, in an interview with RMC Sport. Mediapro had acquired the broadcasting rights for the French championship in May 2018, for the period 2020-2024. The Spanish group had launched a channel called Téléfoot. In December 2020, after only four months of competition, Téléfoot stopped broadcasting Ligue 1, Mediapro no longer honoring its payments since October.
The bankruptcy of Téléfoot does not prevent Roures from offering his critical view on Ligue 1 for which Vincent Labrune, president of the Professional Football League (LFP), said last June that he was aiming for “around a billion euros” in revenue. TV rights for its call for tenders over the period 2024-2027. “I think it’s not possible,” says Roures, referring to “the difficult market situation” and “the role of Ligue 1 among the European Leagues.”
Roures cites the example of Italy which, also keen to reach the billion euro mark, postponed its call for tenders to October last July, in the hope of better offers. “In addition, Canal has found real alternatives with rugby, the Champions League, F1 and motorcycling. They no longer need French football as before,” said Roures, 73.
The boss of Mediapro supports his point by dwelling on “the model of French football” which “is too based on the sale of players”. “It’s very difficult to establish a reference if the best players leave the championship after one season”, according to Roures. There is also, for him, “the problem of schedules” with “most matches played in the same time slot in Ligue 1”, as well as the passage from 20 to 18 clubs. “It removes dates from the calendars, the best leagues in the world like Italy, Spain or England are still at 20,” recalls Roures. The Bundesliga, a German championship which also has 18 clubs, had seen its TV rights peak at 1.1 billion euros per season when they were sold in June 2020.
Jaume Roures regrets that “the crisis with Mediapro in 2020 did not lead anyone to reflect on French football”. As for a potential return to France, Roures slips that “France is not finished for us”, but that he “will not submit an offer, that’s for sure”, for the next call for offers over the period 2024-2027. Mediapro holds sports rights in Belgium, Spain and Canada, among others.
