© LFP
The Professional Football League (LFP) has been trying to sell the TV rights to Ligue 1 for the period 2024-2029 for many months now. For the moment, no official broadcaster has won the bet, and the dreams of grandeur of a championship worth a billion euros per season have vanished.
To tell the truth, and although they are not very talkative on the subject, the leaders of French football would today be largely satisfied with 500 million euros because there is an emergency and the clubs need cash to prepare for the new season.
Laurent Nicollin, president of Montpellier Hérault and Foot Unis, the union of professional clubs, perfectly summed up the critical situation affecting French teams at the moment& ;nbsp;: “It’s not complicated. At today's time, there is zero. For the moment, there are no transfers.”
An offer for 30 euros? No, thank you
While discussions with BeIN and Canal+ seem to have stalled, the LFP is now turning to a plan B which is literally a nightmare for football fans. The idea is in fact to create a 100% Ligue 1 channel which would benefit from seven potential distributors according to the Team: Free, Bouygues, SFR and Orange, but also Amazon Prime Video, Molotov TV, and Google TV.
But the problem lies mainly in its price: 30 euros per month and 300 euros for the full season. We can cite several figures which show that the amount demanded is far too high. The Toulouse Football Club, for example, offers subscriptions at 159 euros per year which allow you to attend 17 matches per season at the stadium.
On the television level, Canal + markets subscriptions at 30 euros per month for one year for its sports bouquet which gives access, among other things, to all the European football cups, Formula 1, the Top 14 rugby and in the main cycling races of the season (via Eurosport). A much more complete offer than that planned to launch by the LFP.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Despite this fairly uncompetitive proposition, the League nevertheless hopes to attract nearly 2 million subscribers, or 500 million euros per season and even 3.37 million subscribers by the 2028 season -2029. It is certainly not forbidden to dream, but how can we believe this bet is feasible when the Amazon Prime Video Ligue 1 Pass failed to attract more than 2 million subscribers even though it only cost 12 euros per month& ;nbsp;?
The defenders of the project, including Joseph Oughourlian, the president of RC Lens, want to believe that the simplification of the offer could attract football fans, but nothing is less certain.
Piracy is becoming commonplace
Of course, things could turn around in the coming days or weeks and discussions are likely continuing between BeIN, Canal+, and French football leaders. But even if a last minute agreement was reached, the latter do not seem decided to spend excessively large amounts on Ligue 1.
In any case, this artistic blur and the multiplication of bouquets necessary to consume sport only encourage piracy. We know in particular that the French are increasingly using illegal IPTV which allows access to all offers for a modest sum.
This information revealed there a few weeks ago by Arcom is in this respect revealing of this new situation. The public authority thus noted a slight increase in 2023 “which corresponds almost exclusively to live broadcasts of sporting competitions.” If they have to pay 30 euros per additional month to access the French Football Championship alone , many Internet users risk turning to these indirect means.
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