The Autorité de la Concurrence says Canal+ cannot go ahead with the exclusive distribution agreement with beIN sports.
In response the French pay-TV network, which is struggling with subscriber erosion in its home market, said the Group will have to work on alternative solutions to stop the losses at the French Canal+ channels.
Last year Canal lost 405,000 subscribers.
A key sticking point is the 2012 agreement that prevents Canal from offering premium channels on an exclusive basis. One of 33 restrictions placed on the paybox in 2006 on the takeover of the former TPS and renewed in 2012 for a further five years.
Although Canal holds exclusivity on another leading sports channel, the Discovery-owned Eurosport, this still sits in its basic packages.
BeIN Sports currently holds the rights to such key competitions, such as the Champions League and France’s Ligue 1.
Le Monde reports that Canal was prepared to make concessions, including freezing the price of BeIN sports at €13 and not imposing a buythrough of either Canal+ or CanalSat. The competition authority then suggested other conditions such as not extending the exclusivity to the internet or overseas, but Canal balked at these points, fearing it would erode the value of the deal.
The agreement was said to be worth several hundred million Euros.
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