Paris, October 14, 2002 – CANAL+ Group announced the launch in France of its sports channel, Sport+. Kick off will take place on October 26 with the
Real Madrid / Villareal soccer crunch broadcast live and exclusively on Sport+. The game will be preceded by an exclusive interview of soccer ace and World Cup best scorer Ronaldo, who has agreed to personally sponsor Sport+. The interview will be carried out by Brazil teammate Leonardo.

Sport+’s offer is based on an impressive line-up of sports events, for which it will benefit from CANAL+’s 18-year experience in sports broadcasting. Two key concepts are behind the channel’s creation:
· Live coverage. Because this is the best way to experience sport events,
· Complementarity of programs with France’s CANAL+ premium channel.

Xavier Couture, Chairman and CEO of CANAL+ Group, said: “I am particularly delighted to announce the birth of Sport+. This is a clear sign that CANAL+ has lost nothing of its creativity and enthusiasm. Such an ambitious project fits perfectly within a new CANAL+, which focuses on all the things that have driven the company’s success. And sport is definitely one of them.”

Michel Denisot, Executive Vice-President of CANAL+ Group, said: “Since 1984, CANAL+ has acquired a unique know-how in the coverage of sports events. With Sport+, TV viewers play extra time. It is a strong, top-of-the range brand that taps into an incredibly rich sports rights catalog. It is with equal commitment, professionalism and dedication that teams at CANAL+ Sports Department will bring to Sport+ viewers more than 60 different sports, including the best of soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, rugby union, cycling, volleyball, ice hockey, and much more.”

An exceptional sports rights catalog
Sport+ offers in excess of 60 different sports, including:

· Soccer: each week, Sport+ will broadcast live and uncut four big matches from Europe’s top soccer leagues (Italy’s Calcio, England’s Premier League, Spain’s Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga) as well as selected games from Argentina’s national championship.
· Tennis: the Masters Series (Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome, Hambourg, Toronto, Cincinnati, Madrid, and Paris), Wimbledon, the Davis Cup, and the Fed Cup.
· Basketball: NBA, WBNA, NCAA, France’s ProA major league, men’s Euroligue, men’s Euro2003 qualifying matches, France’s men and women’s cup finals, France’s women’s Federation Cup final, and the three games of France’s women’s cup final
· Golf: Around 40 top European events and the four tournaments of the World Golf championship
· Rugby Union: the Super12, test matches of Southern Hemisphere teams including Argentina vs. Australia, Ireland vs. Australia, Scotland vs. South Africa, Wales vs. New-Zealand.
· Ice Hockey: NHL
· US football: NCAA
· Cycling: France’s national cup.

In addition, the Sport+ line-up features a number of specialized shows, including STARTER, a magazine dedicated to French car racing, IPPON that focuses on martial arts, ATTITUDE for snow sports fans, and EN GARDE for the latest fencing news.

Complementarities between Sport+ and CANAL+
Sport+ is available on France’s leading satellite platform CANALSATELLITE, all the national cable networks, and also in French overseas territories (DOM-TOM).
Sport+ aims at fulfilling the expectations of die-hard sports fans by offering a line-up of programs that perfectly complements that of France’s CANAL+ premium channel. However, CANAL+ will keep first pick on big events. The channel will always give priority to live events in accordance with the channel’s philosophy to always be where things happen.

For instance, soccer enthusiasts will be able to follow on CANAL+ top French league matches and on Sport+ the best of European football (with four big games live and uncut each week-end). The same applies for rugby: while France’s major league games are on CANAL+, Super 12 rugby and the Test matches of Southern Hemisphere teams are on Sport+. As for golf, CANAL+ will air Grand Slam tournaments and the Ryder’s Cup, and Sport+ the whole European Tour with more than 40 tournaments and the four tournaments of the World Golf championship. Program complementarities will also prevail in basketball, US sports and all the other sports.

Europe’s biggest TV sports department
The merger of CANAL+’s sports team with that of Pathé Sport has created Europe’s largest sport editorial department, headed by Michel Denisot, Executive Vice-President of CANAL+ Group, with 120 full-time journalists and employees dedicated to France’s premium channel CANAL+ and Sport+.




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Jean-Louis Erneux +33 1 44 25 75 81
Marine Lemonnier +33 1 44 25 16 23