Canal+ and La Liga join forces against audiovisual piracy across 50 countries

Canal+ and La Liga announced Friday the signing of an unprecedented strategic agreement to combat sports audiovisual piracy, covering nearly 50 countries in Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti.

Concretely, the French group and Spanish football league commit to “pooling their expertise, technologies as well as their action and analysis capacities in terms of anti-piracy,” according to a joint statement. The partnership comes even as Canal+ no longer broadcasts La Liga in France since the start of the season, with the Spanish championship having migrated to other broadcasters — a commercial break that did not, however, prevent the two organizations from finding common ground on this issue.

Maxime Saada, president of Canal+, said he is “particularly pleased” with this agreement concluded with his La Liga counterpart, Javier Tebas. “All actors in the sports industry, without exception, and broadly all actors in audiovisual creation, have a role to play in the fight against the scourge of audiovisual piracy. Canal+ is taking full responsibility and this partnership invites all actors to do the same,” he said.

The group emphasizes in its statement the economic consequences of piracy across the entire sector: “Each illegal broadcast of a football match deprives the entire amateur and professional sports ecosystem of resources essential to its development: whether it is funding training centers for tomorrow’s talent, supporting clubs of all sizes, or investment in audiovisual production.”

The agreement illustrates a broader trend in the sports audiovisual industry: faced with the explosion of illegal streaming, broadcasters and leagues are seeking to coordinate their technical and legal resources beyond national borders alone.