October 8: Ligue 1 will open tenders for its national broadcasting rights next month, according to L’Équipe, and for once the league is going in with some confidence.
It makes a change from the status quo of the last half decade. French football TV rights have been a mess for six years.
It started with the collapse of the Mediapro deal in 2020. Amazon stepped in and the deal damaged the league’s relationship with Canal Plus, its long-standing network.
When Amazon’s contract ended, DAZN took over but walked out a year into a five-year deal, unhappy with the terms and what it saw as a failure to tackle piracy, which was affecting audiences.
The league responded by launching its own streaming service, Ligue 1+, in the summer of 2025, with beIN Sports picking up one game per round. beIN has also gone. Each step has meant less money for the clubs.
The Ligue 1+ is contracted until 2029, but there is a buyout clause that expires in March, so LFP Media is moving quickly.
Its managing director, Olivier Bramly, has spent the summer meeting with broadcasters such as Canal Plus, RMC Sport, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. L’Équipe reports that he said at a board meeting on Tuesday that he was encouraged by these talks.
A change in French law is a big part of that. The rights can now be sold as a single package rather than split between multiple broadcasters and distributors, which should make the package more attractive to a major buyer and reduce the risk of the kind of patchwork that has dogged the league.
Whether this is enough to recover the value is another question. Several of the companies Bramly has met have history with the league, and not all of them are good. Canal Plus and DAZN have both been in legal disputes with the LFP in recent years.
The clubs, many of them under severe financial pressure, need a deal to recover some of what has been lost. The bidding process opens in November.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick.Webster, at (email protected)