Since the acquisition of the broadcasting rights to Ligue 1 two years ago, the launch of the Telefoot channel “Was not a long quiet river”. The managing director of Mediapro France, Julien Bergeaud, does not think so well to say, in front of the press in the premises of the new chain in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) this Tuesday: at the same time, we learn the postponement, dreaded , from the Marseille-Saint-Etienne match due to four cases of coronavirus within the Olympian team.
The poster, initially scheduled for Friday evening, was to serve as a curtain raiser for the new Ligue 1 season, and at the same time for the new main broadcast channel of the French championship. As if this impediment was not enough, Telefoot is starting the week where all eyes are on the unexpected routes of Lyon and PSG in the Champions League. The new “Home of French football” emerges in adversity.
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Naivety, fatalism or deep confidence in their ambitious enterprise? We wonder while listening to the staff of Telefoot unfold its program schedule in the middle of the brand new studio which will be used for the main shows of the chain. “We’ve been asking the Professional Football League for two weeks to postpone the start of the championship, explains the Catalan boss of Mediapro, Jaume Roures. The Covid, the Champions League, two teams in the semi-finals, this is good news for French football; but for the launch, it is not the best. It was not possible. Since Monday evening, we have been looking for a solution. “
Finally, it is the close collaboration of the Sino-Spanish group with the seller of the broadcasting rights, the LFP, which seems to be its main asset: a plan B had been planned, the Bordeaux-Nantes meeting, brought forward by one day. , to inaugurate the new channel on Friday evening. In this more than uncertain context, a renegotiation of the terms of the contract with the League is however not on the agenda, says Roures: “The Friday game affair is a bad signal, but we will continue to see how it unfolds, if it is a simple mishap.” Everything is fine.
Agreement with Apple, soon on Android
As the Telefoot subscription campaign kicked off this Tuesday, a postponement of the first day might have been too much of a straw for the viewer, already confused by a launch difficult to decipher, with distributors (among the operators, have for the moment been confirmed SFR and Bouygues Telecom) revealed in a trickle. A new announcement should be made in the week concerning an agreement with another distributor, said Jaume Roures, without knowing whether it is Orange, Free or any other actor.
Unless the situation is unlikely, it will not be the Canal + group. Listening to the evasive words of Julien Bergeaud, the negotiations seem to have stopped: “The door is always open. Never say never.” Mediapro, on the other hand, unveiled an agreement with Apple: the Telefoot application is available from this Tuesday on all the brand’s devices. It should be too “shortly” on Android devices. Finally, the distribution agreement by Facebook will soon be formalized, only hampered by “technical problems” for the time being. Definitely.
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This invitation to journalists was above all an opportunity for Telefoot to unveil its editorial line and its technical strike force. No radical bias: the channel is in elegant classicism and mainstream, whether in its visual identity or its cast of journalists, like the multilingual host Anne-Laure Bonnet, the channel’s main incarnation. Youth prevail, with a team of journalists whose average age is 34 and a selection of barely retired consultants, such as Christophe Jallet, Mathieu Bodmer or Loïc Perrin (4,500 L1 matches accumulated on the clock all the same) . They will be framed by some former European glories, such as the Italian Fabrizio Ravanelli or the Spaniard Andoni Zubizarreta, already converted after his recent departure from OM.
Decentralization and immersion
A touch of decentralization all the same, with a daily program presented by Marina Lorenzo (ex-Canal +). At the heart of clubs, as its name suggests, promises a dive into the daily life of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 teams. We find the paw of Jean-Michel Roussier, former leader of OM and Nancy, appointed editorial director of Telefoot last March: the man participated in the launches of two 100% football channels in the past, Onzéo and CFoot, each time focused on club news.
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The immersion does not stop there, since (it is fashionable) several reports embedded will be broadcast weekly, as the League of talents, with around twenty young Ligue 1 prospects, or Issa Nissa, who will follow OGC Nice throughout its season. Friday at 10 p.m., the documentary the New Era will tell the period of the coronavirus from the point of view of all the players (players, coaches, managers) of French pro football.
Apart from that, we will find mullet cuts and mid-thigh shorts, with vintage archives and interviews with big names in the history of the French Championship. Finally, cameras on cables above the grounds, elephantine OB vans and 4K broadcasts, the technical catalog is endless: after all, Telefoot has set up in the premises of a former teleshopping channel. It will now be necessary to judge on the spot, from Friday evening.
Adrien franque
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