Global sports OTT service, DAZN, has recently fortified its position in the French market by acquiring exclusive broadcast rights to Italy's elite soccer competitions, including the top-flight Serie A. This move marks a significant expansion of DAZN's global commitment to Serie A.
DAZN will broadcast all fixtures of Serie A, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana in France. The deal ensures that every Serie A fixture throughout the 2025-26 campaign will be showcased on DAZN. In addition to this, it also includes coverage for the accompanying Coppa Italia knockout competition and the Supercoppa Italiana super cup mini tournament.
The agreement extends beyond France as neighboring principalities Monaco and Andorra are also included in this deal. This further broadens DAZN’s Serie A rights coverage.
Increased interest among French audience
France is notably represented among non-Italian nationalities in Serie A players. Over half of the 20 teams in the league have at least one French player on their roster. Prominent players from the French national team competing in this division include Inter Milan’s Marcus Thuram and Benjamin Pavard, AS Roma’s Manu Kone, and Juventus trio Khephren Thuram, Randal Kolo Muani and Pierre Kalulu.
This strong presence of French players creates an inherent interest for these games among French audiences making it a strategic move for DAZN to acquire these broadcasting rights. Serie A has significantly altered its approach towards finding broadcast partners over recent years. Previously dominated by Infront agency holding most rights; now negotiations are being carried out directly with broadcasters across various markets.
DAZN already holds domestic rights for Series A along with pay-TV network Sky Italia through deals running till 2028-29. The broadcaster has also recently acquired rights for the competition in the UK, Ireland and the US.
DAZN replaces L'Equipe as Serie A rightsholder
DAZN replaces French publication L’Equipe's broadcast arm, which had been the Serie A rightsholder in France since October 2024. L'Equipe aired only two fixtures per Serie A gameweek during the 2024-25 campaign. With this new deal, DAZN represents a significant increase in scope of coverage for Serie A games in France.
The acquisition of exclusive rights to broadcast Serie A games helps DAZN offset its domestic Ligue 1 rights deal that collapsed before the end of the 2024-25 campaign. The previous package included eight out of nine weekly fixtures and will now be offered by an in-house Ligue 1 channel with DAZN securing carriage rights for this service on its platform.
This four-season carriage deal ensures that league distribution by DAZN continues on a non-exclusive basis despite recent setbacks such as its carriage deal with pay-TV heavyweight Canal Plus's MyCanal service coming to an end.
