LFP: New Channel & Distributor Search – Liberation

The Professional Football League (LFP) announced this Tuesday, July 1, the creation of its own broadcasting chain of Ligue 1 to 14.99 euros per month, but is still looking for distributors to ensure its success, after the renunciation of Canal +. The College of Ligue 1 club presidents, LFP Media and the LFP board of directors gave the green light unanimously to “The creation of a TV and Digital platform entirely dedicated to Ligue 1 McDonald’s, managed and managed by LFP Media”, wrote the body in a press release.

The channel will broadcast eight games per day live, the ninth, owned by BeIN Sports, remaining on the Qatari channel until the end of the year 2025-2026. “This new platform is part of a popular and accessible approach, with an offer at 14.99 euros per month with commitment”, Adds the league, aware of the controversies that had weakened the Dazn broadcaster from the start of last season.

Indeed, the success of this channel is vital for club finances. On the number of subscribers will directly depend their TV rights revenue, in the absence of a contract with a broadcaster at the start of the season, after the divorce with Dazn, sold in early May after several months of litigation. The British platform in theory brought 400 million euros in season until 2029. The LFP platform will be presented in more detail during a press conference on July 10.

This announcement of creation of the chain, expected for several days, does not settle the questions of its distribution and its production. Seven weeks from the resumption of Ligue 1, time is running out for French football shaken by repeated crises for four years.

Saturday, the president of Canal +, Maxime Saada, said in The team give up distributing the new platform. Officially for launch price reasons, but according to several concordant sources, Saada also aimed at 15 euros per month. Canal + investments in other rights, such as those in the Champions League, can explain this renunciation.

This was a blow for the League, as the Canal + brand offered guarantees in terms of visibility for the general public. “We estimated very quickly between 800,000 and 1 million subscribers to launch, just with Canal +», underlined Maxime Saada.

But a blow also because the LFP was counting a guaranteed minimum paid by the Media group to the tune of 200 million euros, in the event that it distributes the chain exclusively. LFP Media and its Managing Director, Nicolas de Tavernost, are now looking for all possible opportunities: Internet access providers (ISP) Free, Orange, SFR, as well as Dazn Platforms, Video Prime…

Regarding production, the LFP must choose in the week between 21 production from the group L’Equipe and Mediawan, the company led by Pierre-Antoine Caston. Only one of the two will take the four lots, according to a source close to negotiations: the production of magazines, that of before and after matches, the management of multiplex and finally the management of editorial personnel.

According to the same source, the commentator Xavier Domergue will be one of others in the chain while remaining in M6. The L’Equipe group already produced multiplex matches for Video Prime when Amazon still held the rights of Ligue 1 (2021-2024) after the Mediapp fiasco.