The withdrawal of Canal+ from the distribution of the future channel of the Ligue 1 places French football in the face of a major crisis. A few weeks before the resumption of the championship, the Professional Football League (LFP) is found without a main distribution partner, in a context of continuous weakening of the economic model of TV rights.
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A formalized divorce that weakens the LFP
It is by a declaration by Maxime Saada, Chairman of the Management Board of Canal+, that the rupture was made public on Friday June 27: Canal+ will not distribute the channel that the LFP wants to create for the 2025-2026 season. “Canal+ throws in the towel,” he summed up.
The news was perceived as a “failed meeting” by several observers, and an additional “blow” for the League, already weakened by the failure of its previous partnership with Dazn. The divorce between the LFP and the streaming platform was made in early May, after a single collaboration season.
Tariff and strategic impasse between Canal+ and LFP
The main friction point lies in the subscription price envisaged for the chain. The LFP would have offered a price around 20 euros per month. Maxime Saada estimated this amount incompatible with an offer that does not include all of the meetings – eight matches out of nine per day, beIN Sports retaining a poster.
The Channel+ manager compared this proposal to the “Pass 100% European Cups” subscription of his group, currently invoiced 10 euros per month, arguing that such a tariff differential would be difficult to justify with the public. He recalled Dazn’s commercial failure, which offered an offer between 30 and 40 euros per month.
A disengagement assumed for the benefit of the European Cups
For Canal+, the sporting and commercial interest of Ligue 1 is today secondary. The chain already holds the rights of European cuts, where the most followed clubs-PSG, OM, perhaps evolve, OL – and consider the essentials of demand. According to Daniel Riolo, “Canal+ does not need to pay to see Ligue 1”, in the current state of the offer.
Maxime Saada confirmed this positioning, declaring that the conditions were “not met” to consider a distribution of the new LFP channel.
Post-Mediappro litigation has never been resolved
The memory of the crisis caused by the MEDIAPRO failure in 2021 continues to weigh. Canal+ estimates that it has been disadvantaged when, after the withdrawal of Mediapp, Amazon acquired 80 % of the matches for 250 million euros per season, while Canal+ continued to pay 332 million for two weekly games.
Maxime Saada mentioned a request for “repair” for what he considers a prejudice. He notably proposed the free Codiffusion of the Sunday evening poster for one or two seasons, before a discount on the rights market. However, he refuted any desire for revenge.
Interrupted negotiations despite two proposals
Before retiring permanently, Canal+ had made two concrete proposals to the LFP. In the first scenario, the group would have been entrusted with the exclusive distribution of the Ligue 1 channel to all French operators, with a commitment of a guaranteed minimum and possibility of co -firing a key meeting.
The second scenario provided for a non -exclusive distribution: Canal+ would have been one of the broadcasters, betting on its subscriber base to generate rapidly between 800,000 and 1 million subscriptions to the new channel.
A final meeting was to take place between Maxime Saada and Nicolas de Tavernost, new managing director of LFP Media since the end of April. He will never take place. Saada has decided unilaterally, thus ending any prospect of rapprochement. This decision devotes the failure of negotiations.
A chain without operator six weeks before kick -off
The 100 % Ligue 1 channel project, whose LFP wants to keep the property, is still in the making. Announced in June by Nicolas de Tavernost, he was to be the subject of communication “at the end of June”. To date, no broadcast operator has been appointed. The resumption of the championship is scheduled for August 15.
The creation of a clean chain implies significant fixed costs: production, writing, technical infrastructure. Daniel Riolo expressed a strong skepticism on the economic viability of the project. According to him, at a price of 18 or 19 euros per month, it will be difficult to reach short-term profitability: “We will roll in the mud,” he said, pessimistic.
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