The pay channel acquired the TV rights for Euro 2024 and those for 2028 at the last minute. Until July 14, the pay channel will broadcast the event in full, with the Austria-France meeting on Monday evening.
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Florent Houzot directs the branches, programs and editorial staff of beIN SPORTS. The pay channel will broadcast the Euro football tournament in full until July 14, which is taking place in Germany, including the first match of the Blues, Monday June 17 against Austria. This meeting will also be broadcast on TF1. TV rights acquired five days before the start of the Euro allow beIN SPORTS to become the exclusive broadcaster of the 51 matches, while 25 of them will also be co-broadcast on TF1 or M6. “We need and want to escape a little, especially during this stressful time,” believes Florent Houzot.
Since 2012, beIN SPORTS has broadcast the entire Euro and World Cups. Its subscribers are used to seeing these competitions in full. “The negotiation was long. We had to agree on a price,” says Florent Houzot. Added to this are the rights for Euro 2028. An investment amounting to several million euros, which the director of antennas, even if he does not say the exact amount, considers necessary since the sports channel has as its objective “to remain present on the French market and to continue to offer all these premium competitions for many seasons”.
These major events in the sporting calendar are also factors in recruiting subscribers. During Euro 2016, the milestone of three million subscribers was, for example, crossed. For Florent Houzot the impact of such an event is of the order of “500 and 800,000” new subscribers. Newcomers needed “build loyalty through the quality of the offer and the richness of the competitions to come”.
For the moment, Ligue 1 still does not have a broadcaster even though the resumption is scheduled for mid-August. Florent Houzot talks about its president, Yousef Al-Obaidly, for whom the strategy is to buy rights at the right price. “The fair price is set by BeIN SPORTS and it is our fair price in relation to our business. We are not going to get into difficulty today,” insists Florent Houzot. The domestic championship is still an important championship for football fans in France, he acknowledges, “but it’s true that also having La Liga, the Bundesliga and all the major European championships on beIN is also what makes us strong.”
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