Altice beats Canal+ to English Premier League rights in France

PARIS (Reuters) - Telecoms group Altice has won exclusive French broadcasting rights for English soccer's Premier League for the next three seasons, dealing a blow to current broadcaster Canal Plus, owned by rival media group Vivendi. Altice and the Premier League announced that the contract covers the 2016/17 to 2018/19 seasons, with exclusive rights in France and Monaco, plus non-exclusive rights in Andorra, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The fast-growing group owned by cable entrepreneur Patrick Drahi did not say how much it will pay for the rights, but a source close to the matter told Reuters that Altice agreed to pay about 100 million euros (£70.21 million) a year. Canal Plus, which was paying 65 million euros a year, did not have a representative available for immediate comment. Altice said that fixed and mobile customers in France and Monaco will be able to watch live broadcasts of all matches between England's top-tier teams anywhere and on any device. "This is another big step for Altice's investment strategy to provide the best in class TV content and broadband packages to its customers across the world," Altice Entertainment and Sports Chief Executive Nicolas Rotkoff said. (Reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic and Julien Ponthus; writing by Michel Rose and Bate Felix; Editing by Leigh Thomas and David Goodman)