PSG beat ManU 2-0 on Tuesday at Old Trafford.GETTY IMAGES
Tuesday's Champions League match between ManU and Paris St. Germain, which PSG won 2-0, was “illegally streamed” on the Parisian club’s official Facebook page in France, according to L’ÉQUIPE. The stream “surprised many” considering RMC Sport pays €350M ($395M) per year to exclusively broadcast the Champions League and Europa League in France. More than 1.4 million people reportedly watched the match on Facebook. The stream originated from Brazilian broadcaster Esporte Interativo, which showed the match through Facebook Watch. RMC Sport is “questioning” the “pirate” broadcast, while the club confirmed it has an agreement to show the match on Facebook exclusively in Brazil. There has been “no explanation” as to why the match was made available in France (L’ÉQUIPE, 2/13). 20 MINUTES reported RMC Sport parent company Altice France CEO Alain Weill said, “There was an incident on PSG’s Facebook page. Obviously I cannot believe this was a deliberate decision. From what I understand this (Wednesday) morning, a Brazilian channel which owns the Champions League rights put the images on Facebook, and there was a total lack of control” (20 MINUTES, 2/13). L’ÉQUIPE also reported PSG is effectively in violation of its contracts if it is considered responsible for the illegal broadcast in France. UEFA has already been informed and is following the story as it develops (L’ÉQUIPE, 2/13).
