Lescure feted, peppered at Mipcom
Canal+ chair receives Personality of the Year nod
CANNES -- Canal Plus chairman Pierre Lescure was the star of Mipcom on Wednesday as he basked in the spotlight of being named Personality of the Year for the 1998 event.
But at a packed press conference, which kicked off with a light-hearted homage to Lescure from his own Canal Plus team, Lescure soon found himself fending off curve balls.
No sooner had the applause died down for a televised comic tribute to Lescure, produced by his old C+ programming friend Alain de Greef, than the 53-year-old chairman found himself being asked whether he didn't find it strange to be Personality of the Year at a time when his group is expected to lose more than $100 million.
Still on target
Lescure doesn't lose his cool easily and he comfortably dispatched that pitch by repeating that his group is still on target to stop the losses in 1999 and return to massive profits in 2000.
With his hands largely tied by confidentiality clauses surrounding the bidding for Polygram Filmed Entertainment, Lescure again confirmed that Canal Plus is in the hunt for the company, noting, "the offers don't appear to be (as much as) what Seagram was hoping for. Talks are going on now. We have moved into the second phase of the bidding process."
While Canal Plus execs maintain that the French giant is most interested in getting certain rights to the Polygram library, as well as picking up part of Polygram's film and video distribution system, there seems to be genuine confusion among staffers over how the discussions are going and whether Canal Plus has a real chance with its offer.
Merger discussions
Having spent a good many hours outlining the health of his group to international financial analysts and the press in Paris last month, Lescure and his team had been worried that they might not have anything to say in Cannes. That problem was solved about a week ago when news filtered out that discussions to merge Spanish digital platforms Canal Satelite and Via Digital had hit the wall.
Indications are that Canal Satelite and Via Digital can't agree on the value of the latter. The sticking point is that Via Digital is including access to Spanish soccer rights as part of its value. Lescure said in Paris recently that Canal Satelite had "lent" some soccer rights for top matches to Via Digital during the period of negotiation, but that the rights belonged to Canal Satelite.
Reopen negotiations
However, Lescure added that the fact that neither side had publicly taken a swipe at the other, could indicate that there is still a will to end differences and reopen negotiations, perhaps "before the end of the year. The economic logic is so evident that I'll be surprised if this doesn't happen," said the Canal Plus chairman.
