This Saturday, viewers of football and rugby were able to see unusual images during the first quarter of an hour of the matches broadcast.
By VP with AFP
© ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP
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Ihe football and rugby struck by a social movement. The broadcasts of Ligue 1 and Top 14 matches were disrupted this Saturday afternoon and evening by a social movement by technicians from a television channel provider demanding an improvement in their salary conditions.
Canal+ Sport viewers who watched the shock match of the 31st day of Ligue 1, Paris SG against its runner-up Lens, at 9 p.m., and those of the Rennes-Reims duel, earlier on Amazon Prime Video, had to be content during the first fourteen minutes of a broadcast without close-ups or slow motion. Far from the usual device. At the 15th minute of the game, the retransmissions resumed normally with a realization again using all the cameras positioned around the field and different shot values, as well as slow motions. The impact of this walkout was also felt by the refereeing corps, since the video refereeing (VAR), using the production of the broadcasters, was unavailable for the first fourteen minutes.
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“Dual claim”
An official of the SPIAC-CGT union explained to Agence France Presse that a 59-minute walkout (45 minutes before kick-off and 14 minutes after kick-off) by staff (audiovisual cameramen, operators camera, video and sound assistants) of the production company AMP Visual was organized “around a double claim, recognition and revalorization of their work”. The walkout also concerned five Ligue 2 matches, broadcast at the end of the afternoon on Prime Video, as well as matches from the 22nd day of the Top 14.
It was with the broadcast on Canal+ Sport of the match between Racing 92 and Bordeaux-Bègles at the start of the afternoon that the movement began. It then continued for the other Top 14 matches broadcast by the Canal+ group, including La Rochelle-Bayonne in the evening.
“A quick return to normal”
In a press release, Canal+ sports director Thomas Sénécal had previously explained that “a social movement at our service provider, which ensures the recording of our Ligue 1 and Top 14 matches (risked) impacting the retransmission of the scheduled matches on our antennae”.
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“All the Canal+ teams were mobilized urgently and we are doing everything we can to ensure the broadcasts closest to the standards usually offered to our subscribers. We hope for a quick return to normal,” he added. “We understand the inconvenience caused to viewers in the first minutes of the matches”, for its part explained the National Rugby League (LNR), also hoping for “a rapid return to normal”. The walkout movement should continue, on this same model, on Sunday, when seven L1 matches are on the program and a last Top 14 match.