Apple, which will broadcast the 34 games of CF Montreal this season, will tackle the French-speaking market. Read here the whole Francophonie and not just Quebec. A nuance that allows us to understand how the Californian giant has played its cards for the next campaign.
Apple had an eight-month window between when it announced it had acquired the MLS broadcast rights and kicking off the 2023 season. described in English and French.
A nice surprise for Francophone fans of the MLS. This is certainly not the only news that surprised football aficionados on the eve of the new campaign.
The first major change with which they will have to deal: for the first time since the arrival of the formation in the Garber circuit, they will have to subscribe to a digital channel to see all the meetings of the Montreal club in MLS. Cable channels will not be enough.
The second change, which is also in tune with the times, is more unusual: each of the three pairs of descriptions could be called upon to describe each Canadian club.
Two of his duets are well known to Quebecers and are made up of figureheads. Frédéric Lord and Vincent Destouches, who described the last six seasons of the Impact to TVA Sports, will form one. Another will be Olivier Brett, CFM game reporter on BPM Sports for the past two seasons, and former Impact captain Patrice Bernier.
Finally, Matt Cullen, French-speaking descriptor on the Canadian OneSoccer platform, and former Philadelphia Union player Sébastien LeToux will also be thieves at the fair.
Plus, there will be an extra pair to lend a hand. Discloser, she will be quite often. Jeremy Filosa, Impact game reporter at 98.5 FM when the station held the rights, and Matthias Van Halst, French-language content creator for MLS, will be supporting.
This is where the game of musical chairs begins.
The Lord-Destouches pair will take care of the “most prized encounters”. During the first week of activity, she will be in the description between the match of Toronto FC of Lorenzo Insigne and DC United managed by Wayne Rooney.
“At the start, I thought he had hired me for the 34 games of CF Montreal, because that’s my strength,” says Lord. But Apple came in strong and had a bit more global thinking. »
And it won’t be Olivier Brett who will describe the first part of CFM to Apple TV+, because he will describe it for another network. A bit of a surprise in the Quebec media ecosystem, but Brett will describe the 14 meetings of the Montreal eleven which will be presented on RDS. He will be supported by Wandrille Lefèvre, who, like Bernier, is a former member of the Impact.
“The voice of soccer on RDS” according to Brett, Claudine Douville, will describe some of the MLS games broadcast on the network.
Bernier will also join Brett on RDS, but as a commentator.
“The role I’m going to have with Apple this year, I find it very consistent with the way I saw the agreement for CF Montreal, explains Brett. I think that, for the league and for CF Montreal, this 10-year agreement is extraordinary, but in the short term, the CFM needs sharp coverage. With the club’s recent challenges, they need that balance for the first year of the deal. I will be assigned to more global coverage with Apple and more local coverage with RDS. »
I find that I embody a bit of this balance.
Olivier Brett
It will therefore be the Cullen-LeToux tandem that will do the CFM’s baptism of fire on AppleTV+. A surprise for many, but a significant decision in the international vision of Apple.
Who and how?
Remember that Apple had 8 months to select 30 duets, including 11 in Spanish and 3 in French. It’s a short time to find many people from different backgrounds.
The two descriptors mentioned above are on the same wavelength: the MLS was steered by someone to find the right descriptors for the French-speaking market. The McKinsey firm? Nay.
“I’m a bit of a shortcut, but Fred was the voice on TV and I was on the radio,” Brett points out. Indeed, it makes sense, but it is not that simple.
Lord and Brett know that the League — and potentially CF Montreal — had a say before the candidates were hired.
“The League came highly recommended to me,” says Lord. She recognized my contribution. It’s always flattering to see your work recognized. There was a desire on my part and a desire on the part of the League to continue. I was heard and quickly contacted by Apple. »
The detail that Apple had to negotiate was also that most of the descriptors referred to already had one or even two jobs, as is the case for Olivier Brett. However, he assures that all parties have been flexible to allow a transition to the new platform.
Frédéric Lord agrees: “TVA Sports was very conciliatory. They wanted to keep me in tennis, but my boss was lucid. He knows that I have created a bond with soccer fans. »
Lord, who has been describing games for 11 years, would like to become the “Jacques Doucet of CF Montreal”. However, he does not plan to describe until the age of 82 as the former Montreal Expos descriptor. “I will leave the table before love is served,” he assures.
Like what we can take out the descriptor of a network, but never the descriptor of the medium.