(Bloomberg) -- CVC Capital Partners is working to arrange a loan to help French football teams meet their financial obligations in the event they decide to reject a multibillion-euro broadcasting deal, people familiar with the matter said.
Owners of clubs in Ligue 1, France’s top professional football league, will vote Friday on whether to sign up for a broadcasting deal with billionaire Len Blavatnik’s streaming group Dazn Group Ltd.
Dazn has submitted a five-year bid worth about €2 billion ($2.2 billion) for the broadcasting rights for the majority of Ligue 1 games, an offer that’s lower than a previous proposal it made six months ago, one of the people said.
As an alternative, French clubs are weighing the creation of a new subscription-based channel that they believe could grow to become a more lucrative option, Bloomberg News reported in May.
Such an ambitious plan wouldn’t come with the advance payments attached to traditional broadcasting deals like the one being presented by Dazn. That could mean some clubs would be unable to balance their books and satisfy regulators they are financially viable before the 2024/25 Ligue 1 season kicks off in mid-August.
Private equity firm CVC, which owns a stake in the French league’s media rights company, is lining up a group of banks to provide a short-term lending facility that clubs can use to close any funding gap if they decide to launch the new station, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
“It’s positive if CVC steps in here, although I haven’t seen the details,” said Francois Godard, senior media and telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis. “It shows they are committed as an investor.”
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. has already offered to broadcast games from any new channel on its Max streaming platform, while the French league could sign similar deals with other platforms, one of the people said.
Representatives for CVC, Dazn and Warner Bros. declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Ligue de Football Professionnel, the governing body for professional football in France, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ligue 1 isn’t the only European football league embroiled in tough negotiations over a new broadcasting deal. In Germany, a media rights auction has been suspended following a dispute with Dazn.
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