A fresh warning has been fired across French sport’s uneasy broadcasting landscape. Canal+ says a proposed VAT change in the 2027 finance bill could force it to reconsider spending on sport and cinema, with Ligue 1’s recent rights crisis again held up as the cautionary tale.
Maxime Saada, chairman of Canal+’s management board, said the proposal would remove the 10% VAT rate currently applied to pay-television services. The rate would rise to 20%, creating an estimated €200 million annual cost for the group.
Quick facts
- The proposed VAT rate for pay-TV would increase from 10% to 20%.
- Canal+ estimates the measure would cost it €200 million.
- Saada said any subscription-price effect would not come before 2028 or 2029.
- Canal+ holds Top 14 and Pro D2 rights from 2027 to 2032 for €139.4 million per season.
- The broadcaster also finances Champions League football and the women’s Première Ligue.
Saada said Canal+ could not simply absorb the extra charge. He warned that subscription fees would eventually have to increase, while a restructuring plan and reduced investment in film and sport could also follow.
“We are France’s leading financier of sport,” Saada said, pointing to the broadcaster’s portfolio in rugby, European football and the women’s domestic game. He added that Paris Saint-Germain earn more from the Champions League, whose rights Canal+ helps fund, than from Ligue 1.
He also highlighted rugby’s dependence on television income, saying the sport’s league has noted that 70% of its resources come from media rights paid by Canal+. The immediate threat may therefore be even sharper for professional rugby than for French football.
Canal+ purchased the Top 14 and Pro D2 packages for the 2027-32 cycle in 2024, agreeing to pay €139.4 million each season. Saada argued that the government had not carried out an impact assessment before considering the tax measure.
He described the plan as a political decision lacking economic logic, arguing that it could destabilise the funding model behind both French cinema and sport. His central question was blunt: who would replace Canal+ as a major investor if it stepped back?
Ligue 1 remains part of that argument. Canal+ withdrew from the league’s rights process in 2024, still angered by the fallout from the Mediapro collapse and its handling by the Professional Football League.
Without Canal+ in the bidding, French football entered a severe media-rights squeeze. The league’s own channel was subsequently used to distribute matches, but club audiovisual revenue fell sharply.
Relations between Canal+ and the Professional Football League have improved somewhat in recent months. Yet the proposed VAT increase has reopened the possibility that the broadcaster could limit future commitments, at a time when Ligue 1 remains highly vulnerable over its television income.
