Soccer rights step up France Telecom's media push

By Astrid Wendlandt

PARIS (Reuters) - Winning the rights to broadcast premiere league football matches will help France Telecom step up its transformation into an integrated multi-media group, analysts said on Thursday.

It also further justifies its plan to launch satellite delivery this spring, for those who cannot get TV over existing DSL phone lines, as part of the company's triple-play offering of Internet, TV and telephone.

Half of French residents cannot get TV over phone lines because they live too far from an exchange to get an adequate signal.

France Telecom, which trades as Orange, is hoping to unveil soccer TV prices in March and launch them commercially in May or June but the final timing has not firmed up yet, a spokeswoman said.

"France Telecom is not looking to launch a stand-alone satellite TV broadcasting service but simply a complementary TV connection via satellite as part of its triple play offering," France Telecom Senior Executive President Georges Penalver told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

"The soccer matches will help us increase our viewership," he added.

France Telecom paid 203 million euros ($296.9 million) to get three of the 12 lots put up for tender by the French Professional Football League.

Pay-television firm Canal Plus, which had held the rights until now, won the remaining nine lots. Canal Plus is controlled by Vivendi, which also control France's second-largest mobile operator, SFR.