Ligue 1: LFP creates its channel but is still looking for distributors

The Professional Football League (LFP) announced on Tuesday, July 1st, the creation of its own Ligue 1 broadcast channel at €14.99 per month, but is still looking for distributors to ensure its success, following Canal +'s withdrawal. The college of Ligue 1 club presidents, LFP Media, and the LFP board of directors unanimously gave the green light to "the creation of a TV and digital platform entirely dedicated to Ligue 1 McDonald's, managed and piloted by LFP Media," the body wrote in a press release.

The channel will broadcast eight matches per day live, with the ninth, owned by beIN Sports, remaining on the Qatari channel until the end of the 2025-2026 financial year. "This new platform is part of a popular and accessible approach, with an offer at 14.99 euros per month with a commitment," adds the League, aware of the controversies that weakened the broadcaster DAZN from the start of last season.

Indeed, the success of this channel is vital to the clubs' finances. Their TV rights revenue will directly depend on the number of subscribers, in the absence of a contract with a broadcaster at the start of the season, following the divorce with DAZN, settled in early May after several months of litigation. The British platform theoretically provided €400 million guaranteed per season until 2029. The LFP's platform will be presented in more detail at a press conference on July 10.

This announcement of the channel's creation, expected for several days, does not resolve the issues surrounding its distribution and production. With seven weeks to go before the resumption of Ligue 1, time is running out for French football, which has been rocked by repeated crises for the past four years.

On Saturday, Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada announced in L'Equipe that he was abandoning distribution of the new platform. Officially, this was due to the launch price, but according to several concordant sources, Saada was also targeting €15 per month. Canal+'s investments in other rights, such as those for the Champions League, may explain this decision.

This was a major blow for the League, as the Canal+ brand offered significant visibility to the general public. "We estimated that we would quickly gain between 800,000 and 1 million subscribers at launch, just with Canal +," emphasized Maxime Saada.

But it's also a blow because the LFP was expecting a guaranteed minimum payment of €200 million from the media group if it were to distribute the channel exclusively. LFP Media and its CEO, Nicolas de Tavernost, are now seeking all possible outlets: Internet service providers (ISPs) Free, Orange, SFR, as well as the DAZN and Prime Video platforms, among others.

Crisis

Regarding production, the LFP must choose within the week between 21 Production of the L'Equipe group and Mediawan, the company headed by Pierre-Antoine Capton . Only one of the two will win the four lots, according to a source close to the negotiations: the production of magazines, that of pre- and post-match, the management of multiplexes and finally the management of editorial staff.

According to the same source, commentator Xavier Domergue will be one of the channel's many faces while remaining at M6. The L'Equipe group already produced multiplex matches for Prime Video when Amazon still held the Ligue 1 rights (2021-2024) following the Mediapro fiasco.