Basketball: black screen on the French Championship, the divorce between Skweek and L’Équipe is confirmed

The ax has fallen! Faster and more brutally than expected. The match of the 31st day of Betclic Élite between Roanne and Monaco, which takes place this Wednesday evening, will ultimately not be visible on the Skweek digital platform. Instead, basketball fans will be treated to a black screen. As feared. A sad first but one that should be repeated quickly… And probably for a long time.

Since the start of the season, and as revealed by Le Parisien, Skweek, owned by FedCom Media, a branch of the multinational FedCom whose owner is businessman Alexeï Fedorychev, has accumulated unpaid debts and late payments to numerous partners. Among them: L’Équipe, which produces matches for the French Championship via its company 21 Prod, or even IMG for the Euroleague. But also the Asvel club, of which he is one of the main sponsors. The damage amounts to several million euros.

Dear subscribers, we are unable to broadcast the Roanne-Monaco meeting scheduled for this evening.
We are sincerely sorry and apologize for this inconvenience.

— SKWEEK (@skweektv) April 17, 2024

An exorbitant cost which therefore caused the rupture. During the day, the L’Équipe group sent a letter to the platform and to various players in French basketball to inform them of its desire to put an end to the contract which linked it to the digital platform for the production and broadcast of the French Championship. With immediate effect.

“The Team bears the cost of financing Euroleague and Betclic matches and was thus forced to send termination letters because the situation is no longer sustainable,” explains a person close to the matter. Unless agreed with the authorities, the next matches will not be produced or broadcast. »

Like you, we note the absence of distribution on @skweektv and we regret it for every basketball fan and supporter.
We hope that Skweek will do everything possible to resolve this situation. #BetclicELITE

— LNB (@LNBofficiel) April 17, 2024

Even the flagship meeting on Sunday evening, broadcast by the L’Équipe channel, whose audiences had been constantly increasing since the start of the season and which did not initially seem threatened, could also be a victim of this situation. The League would now discuss over-the-counter with the Team to find a solution to the situation. Logically, the rights to French basketball could also be put on the market in the summer. As a reminder, Skweek signed an agreement at the start of the season with the National Basketball League to be the broadcaster of French basketball until 2030 (for an average of 2.5 million euros per season over this period).

“Our partner, the L’Équipe group, has indeed informed us of its decision, we understand it,” confides Philippe Ausseur, president of the Basketball League. On the other hand, we trust the commitment of the L’Équipe group in its desire to continue the promotion and exposure of French professional basketball. »

This loss of visibility would have dramatic consequences for French basketball and worries all stakeholders. Gathered at a general meeting this Wednesday afternoon, the leaders of the Betclic and Pro B clubs expressed their fears to Oleg Petrov. The CEO of Skweek and FedCom Media spoke at the end of the day’s AGM to reassure his audience. Not sure it was successful…

On the platform side, we ensure we do everything we can to continue broadcasting the matches. Skweek, which claims to be up to date with TV rights regulations, would have made transfers to 21 Production. According to our information, the group would have made its first payments but they were far from the amounts expected and hoped for by the various partners. Causing this brutal divorce. The series is far from over.