PARIS — France’s State Council kicked Canal Plus to the curb Friday, rejecting the pay TV group’s appeal to shoot matches from the French national soccer league (LFP) themselves.
The network argued that the league can, by law, sell the broadcast rights for the soccer games, but doesn’t have the inherent right to also produce the images of these matches.
The courts ruled in favor of the league claiming that LFP has the right to produce its own images of the soccer matches and can thus offer already-filmed matches in its 2008-12 12-part package to bidding networks.
Now that the LFP has regained production rights, both the league and Canal Plus await next Wednesday’s hearing, at which point France’s high court the Tribunal de Grande Instance will decide whether Canal Plus’ appeal to halt said bidding is viable.
