Mediawan, a renowned French media group, has been selected as the production partner for the new broadcast channel that will cover France's top-tier Ligue 1 soccer domestically in the upcoming season. The firm triumphed over 21 Production, owned by L'Equipe, to secure this contract with LFP Media.
LFP Media initiated the production tender at the start of June. They were seeking a production company to support its editorial content with four rights packages available. However, match production will be handled in-house by the LFP.
The contract was awarded to Mediawan because their "project matches the ambition of the LFP Media teams." At present though, no broadcasters have been confirmed to carry this new channel.
Mediawan's sporting credentials
Mediawan boasts an impressive portfolio in sports content creation. Their experience includes producing documentary content around prominent French sports stars like Rudy Gobert and Antoine Griezmann and events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They also own France’s Golf Channel network.
Recently, they were announced as producers for a new film and documentary series from Amazon MGM Studios about Isle of Man TT motorcycle race. Earlier in July, stakeholders across top-tier French soccer approved plans for Ligue 1 to create an in-house TV channel providing coverage for its matches. This decision was voted through by club presidents from all 18 clubs within League 1 along with board members from both LPF league body and supervisory committee of LPF Media.
Starting August 15th during upcoming season (2025-26), eight out of nine games per matchday will be covered exclusively on this domestic channel while international sports broadcaster BeIN Sports will show one remaining match each week. Subscriptions are priced at €14.99 ($17.66) per month, significantly lower than what DAZN charged last season. The LFP is relying on strong sales to keep much of Ligue 1 financially viable.
Future of the channel
The creation of this in-house channel comes after the collapse of a broadcast partnership with DAZN which covered eight fixtures per gameweek through a €325 million deal. Following the end of BeIN-LFP deal, it is expected that this new channel will show every Ligue 1 match in 2026-27.
However, Canal Plus has confirmed its withdrawal from negotiations around carrying the new channel after tabling two offers to host it. This decision was made as they believed "the conditions are not in place for Canal Plus to distribute the new Ligue 1 platform." The creation of this channel stems from DAZN failing to pay multiple rights fee instalments due to the LFP following their initial agreement signed last summer before the start of 2024-25 campaign.
This saga has been seen as disastrous with overestimation by LPF leading to a significant drop in domestic broadcast rights value and marking first time since 1984 that Canal Plus did not air live League 1 matches. As such, for season (2025-26), many clubs (outside perennial champions Paris Saint-Germain) will likely operate on severely reduced budgets.
