In a significant move, Ligue 1, the top-tier of French soccer, has decided to create and develop an in-house TV channel to provide coverage for its matches. This decision represents a considerable risk as it adds another streaming service to an already crowded market.
On July 1st, the major stakeholders in French soccer including the 18 Ligue 1 club presidents, the board of directors at the LFP league body, and the supervisory committee of the LFP Media arm voted through this project. The new channel will domestically cover eight out of nine games per matchday exclusively from August 15th at the start of upcoming season (2025-26). The remaining match will be broadcasted by international sports broadcaster BeIN Sport.
Subscriptions can initially be bought for €14.99 ($17.66) per month which is significantly less than what last season's primary domestic rightsholder DAZN was charging. The financial stability of much of Ligue 1 depends on strong sales from this venture.
New era post-DAZN partnership collapse
The decision to launch an in-house linear TV channel comes after a failed broadcast partnership with DAZN that covered eight fixtures per gameweek through a €325 million deal while BeIN Sports aired one game via contract running through till end of season (2025-26).
Following this collapse and subsequent end of BeIN-LFP deal, it is likely that every single match will be shown on this new channel starting from season (2026-27). Costanza Barrai, senior media analyst at GlobalData commented on these long-term prospects stating that it represents another sports subscription option entering into an already crowded French market.
The approval also comes days after pay-TV heavyweight Canal Plus confirmed its withdrawal from negotiations around carrying the new channel. Canal Plus reportedly tabled two offers to host the channel but ended up stepping back due to unfavorable conditions.
Production services for in-house channel
In late June, it was revealed that L’Equipe-owned broadcast company 21 Production and French media conglomerate Mediawan were the two bidders that LFP Media will choose from in terms of handling production services for the in-house channel. LFP Media launched a production tender at the beginning of June, seeking production companies to support its editorial content. The creation of this channel stems from DAZN's failure to pay multiple rights fee instalments due to LFP following their last-minute agreement signed before 2024-25 season.
DAZN failed to pay half of a rights fee instalment worth €70 million citing challenging operational conditions, partly due to piracy issues and insufficient cooperation from certain clubs in promoting Ligue 1 product and failing to provide editorial content. This forced LFP into legal action against DAZN which eventually paid off after mediation by Paris Economic Activities Tribunal.
Overall, this saga has been seen as disastrous with overestimation of package value leading for example - marking first time since 1984 that French broadcasting heavyweight Canal Plus did not air live matches. Now with DAZN paying off early termination fees, only guaranteed domestic media rights income is what BeIN pays for one game per matchday – success or failure of new channel depends on initial uptake amongst French soccer fans.
