Last summer, the Saudi Pro League bolstered itself by bringing in stars like Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar. But the audience is a disaster for Canal+.
Organizers of the Saudi Arabian Championship thought they could excite the football world by dropping hundreds of millions of euros to convince several aging stars to join their competition. With the great blows of exceptional contracts, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema opened the ball for other prestigious signings to Banks. And inevitably, several channels flocked to the box office to grab the broadcast rights of the Saudi Pro League. In France, it was Canal+ that did not spare a million euros to participate in this competition, which the encrypted channel attaches great importance to. But the audience was leaked and on the part of the Saudi Pro League broadcaster, we are obviously sorry. And there is something.
0% audience share for Saudi Pro League on Canal+
🚨 Saudi Pro League is coming to CANAL+! 🇸🇦
Ronaldo, Benzema, Mane, Mahrez… are already making their comeback @canalplus In France and Africa 😱
See you on Friday pic.twitter.com/1xm5KFmnDg
– CANAL+ FOOT (@CanalplusFoot) August 8, 2023
Indeed, Sacha Nokovich reports in Sports Daily that the latest poster last Friday was A.l Hilal at Al Ittihad, attended by several internationals including N’Golo Kanté, gathered 5,000 spectators. As our colleague pointed out wryly, this represents an audience that is six times smaller than the national match between Rouen and Sochaux, which is also broadcast by Canal+ Sport. For Médiametrie, this represents an audience of 0% of the entire public. And this match which did not feature any of the megastars of the Saudi Pro League was indeed no exception. Even if these figures are confidential, the average audience for a Saudi Arabian championship is 15,000 people. Primarily, this will not put into question the broadcast of this competition on Canal+ which at the same time is preparing to definitively sever ties with our good old Ligue 1. It is true that the price to be paid is not the same, but clearly neither. Do the audience.
