Marseille to launch TV channel
Posted: Wednesday December 16, 1998 04:40 PM
MARSEILLE, France (AP) -- Marseille is set to become the first
soccer club in continental European to launch its own television
channel, the club said Wednesday.
The channel, called "OMTV," will be available between 4 p.m.
and 8 p.m. every day, and cost customers 35 francs (US$six) a
month.
It will run over the network of pay television station Canal
Plus and begin transmission on January 16.
In an effort to bolster their marketing, English clubs Leeds
United and Manchester United have created TV stations.
Marseille is the first outside England to follow suit.
"The local, regional and national press constitute a good
vehicle for Marseille, but we need more to counterbalance the
opinion of the written press," said club president Robert-Louis
Dreyfus, who is also president of sportswear giant Adidas.
In addition to merchandising, the channel will feature news,
quizzes and replays of classic matches.
After winning the European Cup in 1993, Marseille was rocked by
corruption scandals and was expelled from the French first
division.
But the club has bounced back.
It lies top of the French first division and has qualified for
the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup.
The club spent 15 million francs (US$2.6 million) to set up
OMTV and is hoping to sign up 12,000 subscribers by the end of
1999.
"That figure seems possible because we know that we have
100,000 people who follow us in France," said the club's deputy
president Jan-Michel Roussier.
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