The French Ligue1 forced by the absence of offers to make the private channel for the matches of the championship. How much it will cost and why it is a move of the despair of an increasingly rich football
The French Ligue1 makes the private TV channel to broadcast the matches of the championship and get out of the stall in which it has been precipitated for months. Abandoned by daznforced to raise the crumbs of a TV rights market and less rich for local football competitions, cannibalized by the dimensional growth of the Champions League – where the increase in the number of matches has also served to compensate for the decrease in their nominal value – and by the competition with other entertainment products. A risk shared with all the other Top of the Old Continent Championships, excluding Premier League.
A choice that resembles the desperate move of a system in deep economic crisis, with a club that dominates from the top of the economic overwhelming power (the PSG has cannibalized 11 of the last 13 championships) and a Tournament with little appeal at an international level and which affects the right also to the French. To say it is Dazn’s parable, which left the five -year contract entered into in 2024 for having reached a third of the million and a half subscribers considered the acceptable threshold for the business plan.
French Ligue1, how much it costs and how much the private channel for matches will obtain
Dazn had guaranteed 400 million euros per season until 2029 To transmit 8 out of 9 games each day, all excluding that of Saturday afternoon still in the availability of Bein Sports until 2026 for a consideration of 78.5 million. Agreement skipped quickly despite being already down compared to the 624 million euros per season that Ligue1 had managed to snatch on first videos and canal+ for the three-year period 2021-2024the apparent end of the tunnel in which French football had fallen after the hole taken from Mediapro in 2020. The Spaniards had moved off promising € 1,150 billion, only to retire almost immediately leaving the clubs on the pavement.
Now the companies, unable to place their product on the TV market market, have decided to move independently. The Business Plan, however, is as a professional football war economy. While keeping prices low, with the subscription positioned at 14.99 euros per month -exact half of that of DAZN in 2024 -, The private channel of the Ligue1 estimates that it can reach a maximum of 151 million euros of revenues in the next twelve monthsto be purified from the production costs.
The rest is a bet and that is that It goes from 1.1 million subscribers in 2025/2026 at balance prices, over two million in 2028/2029 with a turnover of 470 million euros however clearly lower than the previous value of the tournament from a television point of view. The bubble broke out, therefore, not without consequences for companies. Just think that from here to 2026 the perspective is to collect a maximum of 315 million euros between direct revenues (gross of expenses), bein sports contract (78.5) and the criminal that Dazn recognized at the time of the agreement (85). Then Ligue1 will have to walk on her legs.
Serie A and the prospect of the League canal
The French story sounds as a warning for everyone. In Italy, the presidents of the clubs have been shaking the fetish of the Serie A League channel to check a few euros more from the broadcasters. A solution driven by some and opposed by the majority, so much so that in the end it has always remained in the drawer although the managers of via Rosellini have recently invested a lot to set up the Lissone production center where the direction of the matches and the production of all the collateral contents was centralized, also intended for the international market.
The last agreement has secured the system until 2029 albeit with a slight decrease in the total: 900 million euros. The parable of the Ligue1, however, is a warning for everyone. Also because the TV rights market now seems saturated, a cake with less and less slices (and more subtle) available to operators in the sector. The fault of piracy, but not only. If it is true that the submerged draga over 300 million euros per season to the legitimate owners of the product, the risk is that the new scenario is more systemic and structural that linked to the contingency of those who steal by damaging everyone. What would happen to the Serie A if it was facing the same challenge as the French colleagues?
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