Corey : I don’t know how the TV system works in the USA, but it seems that you have a lot more channels than we do. Either you have pay networks that are very widespread, each with their own large choice of channels, or you have some way of getting more channels than France does. In France, up till 2006 there were only 5 “national” channels (TF1, F2, F3, F5/Arte, M6), as well as one pay-network that had their main channel sometimes availible (Canal+). Since F2, F3 and F5/Arte are all the same group (FranceTélévisions), and they’re public, they deemed in the past that Football (in league format) wasn’t something that suited “public” broadcasters. So they’d get the Cup competitions, and since they are the only channels to have a “regional” capacity, they would show different matches in different areas (ex. Paris-Carquefou in Paris, Marseille-La Duchère in Marseille, etc…). TF1, M6 and Canal+ don’t have this capacity. Now, in 2006, TNT broadcasting and TVoIP started to make a foray in the french market, and has increased the number of channels. However, they’re very recent, and I guess they’ll start “mergering” to make groups soon… But that’s still far off. So all these channels are relatively poor, and tend to focalise on low-cost strategies (loads of Music Channels, loads of TVShop channels, loads of talkshow channels, loads of “old show” channels, loads of news channels…), with the few that fare better having already been bought into bigger groups (W9 is a branch of M6, Direct8 is a branch of TF1, Virgin17 is a branch of Virgin Media, NRJ12 a branch of NRJ radio…). So French viewers are pretty much limited to 3-4 “national” channels of any importance… And almost nothing beside it. I have (thank you Free TV) 300+ channels on TV I never watch (yep, arabic, turc, romanian, belarus…), and yet I -never- see any sports on TV (except an odd game of handball, volleyball, or rugby on one of the “national” channels…). So It’s a bit of a dream for us frenchies that you Americans have Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV, Setanta… All we have is C+Sport. And it’s pay-per-view.

francis : I hope you only mean “most watched sports program”… Because even Ligue 1 isn’t the most-watched program on French TV. France national team, Champion’s League, Dr House, Prison Break, News at 8, Lost, 24… They get better audiences than Ligue 1 week in week out. And they’re part of the reason why TF1 and M6 aren’t interested in bidding for “premium” games. Why would they want to decrease their viewing ratings? Even in sports ratings, I’m not sure Ligue 2 is the most watched… Rugby in France has taken a big step forwards, and since the World Cup 2006 has become capable to rivalise with football when it comes to national sides. So in the sporting world, the French NT in football or rugby dwarf Ligue 1, but so does the Champions’ League, in fact… What you might mean is that Ligue 2 is the second most watched “football league” in France. And there, you’d probably be right. But that’s due to the fact that EPL, Serie A, La Liga and Bundelisliga games are shown on C+ at non-prime times, whilst Eurosport France and Numéricable (who have the Ligue 2 rights) program Ligue 2 at prime time. (Although even there, I’m surprised. Figures would be appreciated.) Lastly, how many people watch F2F? How many people watch Téléfoot? F2F has Ligue 1 & Ligue 2, Téléfoot has the other leagues, the NT and the European competitions. Téléfoot gets far better audiences, so I doubt Ligue 2 is “that” attractive… As for the “popularity” of the Championship in England : Average attendancy figures (2006-07) : Ligue 1 (21,817), Championship (18,221), Ligue 2 (6,813). Make up your own mind. Mine is already made up.

i don’t think this changes things for anyone else either. TV5 will keep doing whatever they do in your neck of the woods, here in france they’ve never carried any football anyway.

C+ seems to have the same rights they always had: in fact only C+ sport (pay even extra) showed any saturday matches anyway, that corresponds to the fan lots.

orange getting premium lot 3 may be good news for lots of people, since they’re already france’s n°1 ISP… it depends on what level of service they include football in: if they put it in the entry-level subscription they’re going to kill alice, neuf, free and tutti quanti.

as for telefoot: in olden days it was the ONLY way to keep abreast of the world of football, but in these modern dailymotion times, it was bound to go the way of the buttonhook and moustache wax.

- Marseille,PSG,Bordeaux winning the championship would certainly help

- Privatization will undoubtly mean lower attendance. However Ligue 1 is the most watched program in france(and ligue 2 is the second most watched!). I can assure you that the English Championship is not the second most watched program in England!. So im not too worried for French football.

And MLS games gets a weekly slot on network tv and an ESPN channel. So why cant France work something like this out? They only have football, rugby, auto racing and a few other sports to cover, not the broad range the US has. It baffles me sometimes that the US has such broad coverage but no soccer and European countries have a more narrow coverage but have such trouble getting free football on the tele.

On a financial point of view, the result is indeed very promising…because Orange was not at all a broadcaster of any kind of program (ie on TV, but did already broadcast the Ligue1 on their cellphones), and pays today to see how it looks…where it becomes interesting : Canal + is owned by Universal whose turnover is around 20 billions, whereas Orange is owned by France telecom whose turnover is around 60 billions… Canal+ can start to prey that Orange don’t outbid them to get all the lots next time…

Ironical conclusion 1: Orange is on the way to realize what Jean-Marie Messier (former universal CEO) was dreaming to do: have the tubes and the flow.

Ironical Conclusion 2: English crickets TV broadcast had been totally privatized too…and its popularity just went down and down..

Ironical conclusion 3: This result is the consequence of the liberal market system of sport in Europe, that in France we blame on the USA…whereas USA has a very collective system for sport through its systems of drafts, etc to put back some equality between teams…

So let hope our private operators understand they have to give some free bites in order people remain interested to watch our Ligue 1 jus d’Orange…