Wednesday morning surprise. Gathered in colleges, the presidents of the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs learned from Nicolas de Tavernost, the boss of LFP Media and director of Ligue 1+, that the platform had reached an agreement with Fifa for the broadcast in France of the next World Cup (from June 11 to July 19) in its entirety, according to information from L’Equipe that we are able to confirm
This deal, which was unanimously validated by the leaders of the professional clubs, should cost the League just under 20 million euros and therefore covers the 104 matches of the competition. In detail, 54 matches – including those in France – will be shared with M6 and the other 50 will be broadcast exclusively by Ligue 1+, the platform created this summer by the Football League to broadcast the French championship and which currently boasts just over a million subscribers.
The agreement, negotiated in the last few days, is still subject to validation by the two boards of directors of the LFP and Fifa. However, it is difficult to imagine a turnaround in the situation, unless a new player joins the discussions at the last minute. If M6 had long won the “free” TV rights (that is to say broadcast on free channels) for the World Cup, no broadcaster had so far come forward for the additional lot of rights for pay channels. Not even BeIN Sports, which had nevertheless obtained these rights in France during the last three World Cups.
If the deal were to be finalized, Ligue 1+ would take advantage of this market opportunity to gain notoriety and establish itself a little more in the French audiovisual landscape. Broadcasting the World Cup, including certain matches exclusively, should also allow it to attract new subscribers and not suffer too much from the long period (almost two and a half months) between the end of the Ligue 1 season and the start of the next, where it will recover the entire broadcast of elite matches, compared to 8 out of 9 at present.
On the League’s side, we estimate that between taking out subscriptions and the advertising revenue that the World Cup will generate, the project should be self-financing. In any case, it is not expected that this will change the amounts paid to professional clubs at the end of the season.
