Epilogue of the Ligue 1 TV rights crisis: towards a new casting error?

Epilogue of the Ligue 1 TV rights crisis: towards a new casting error?

All that for this. 500 million euros per year obtained by the Professional Football League (LFP) until the 2028-2029 season for the broadcasting of the Ligue 1 championship. A far cry from the billion so hoped for by its president, Vincent Labrune, who had never stopped, in the press, proudly announcing this valorization of French football. Well no, we are far from it. French football, despite its market, despite its potential, despite its fans, is not worth 1 billion euros. It is positioned far from the powerful English and Spanish championships, both over a billion.

How many mistakes have been made by the LFP leaders. How many bad choices and pitiful statements have been made by these same leaders. For a little less than a year, between the unsuccessful call for tenders in the fall of 2023 and July 14, 2024, the date of the officialization of the final agreement, we have seen only amateurism and absurdity. Let’s take a closer look at these events.

From the Mediapro fiasco to the disinterest of Canal+

As a reminder, the French Ligue 1, the first division of the national football championships, had suffered greatly from the Mediapro cataclysm, when the main broadcaster had failed to act at the time of the Covid-19 crisis and had literally broken its contract. At the time, the LFP had already managed to negotiate a valuation of the television rights at more than 1 billion, precisely at 1.153 billion euros.

It was 2018, global stars Neymar and Kylian Mbappé were still playing in Ligue 1 and everyone was convinced that French football could compete with the European big names. A new player, Mediapro, was then brought in with great fanfare, to compete directly with Canal+, the founding father of football broadcasting on television, and the Qatari network beIN Sports (established in France since 2012).

In 2018, for television rights for the period 2020-2024, The LFP had taken a risky decisionbut financially advantageous. It had turned to the highest bidder and not the lowest bidder. It chose Mediapro and put aside its historic partner, Canal+, which certainly offered less, but guaranteed the quality and wide broadcasting of football in the territory. Serious mistake. Despite the contractually reached billion, Mediapro, through its Téléfoot channel, was unable to generate profits, attract enough subscribers and balance its accounts, as of September 2020. The Sino-Spanish broadcaster stopped all broadcasting a few months later and Canal+ returned as a savior.

In this case, you will tell me, the LFP was going to reward its savior – let us recall that French football had just suffered blow after blow from the pandemic and the bankruptcy of its main broadcaster, with losses estimated at 1.3 billion euros– and confirm Canal+ as the main broadcaster until 2024. With its 8 million subscribers, its presence in France and its experience in sports programming, this would have allowed French football to get back on its feet. Well, not at all. For the 2021 to 2024 seasons, LFP boss Vincent Labrune has chosen Amazon’s American Prime Video platform, despite a joint proposal from Canal+ and beIN Sports.

Over three seasons, French football has found itself valued, between the rights sold to beIN and the American streaming service, at 624 million euros (332 million paid by beIN, 250 million paid by Amazon and 42 million euros for digital rights paid by Free). As for Canal+, although a subcontractor of beIN Sports through a sublicense agreement with the Qatari channel, scorned, rejected or simply embittered, the French encrypted channel has announced on several occasions no longer wanting to position itself on French football and did TV rights to UEFA’s three European Cups and on the English championship.

We must save Private Ligue 1, but the historic broadcasters are no longer going to the front

Another element to take into consideration in this processing of information: the arrival from the Luxembourg investment fund CVC Capital Partners in the shares of the French championship. In 2021, after suffering colossal losses linked to the health crisis and the failure of the broadcaster Mediapro, the LFP announced the creation of a commercial company and the sale of 13% of its shares to this fund, for the tidy sum of 1.5 billion euros.

The clubs recover a large part in order to meet their debts and their creditors. But from 2024, that is to say from next season (which begins in a month, on August 16, 2024), the Luxembourg fund will recover, for an indefinite period, 13% of all the revenues of the LFP. Yes, but it was necessary to save the soldier Ligue 1. Even if it meant selling his soul to the devil?

Let’s summarize: French football suffered the Covid-19 economic crisis, experienced the bankruptcy of a broadcaster, had to adapt to a deflation of the amount of its rights (from 1.15 billion to 624 million euros), saw the arrival of a fund that cannibalized 13% of its entire lifetime revenue and alienated Canal+, its historic partner established in the territory.

In June 2023, it is time to negotiate the next television rights of Ligue 1. As we have said, money is needed, because there is suffering and, in addition, there is a fund that will take 13% no matter what. The president of the LFP, Vincent Labrune, then sets the tone: “We are aiming for around a billion euros.” In September 2023, a call for tenders is launched, with a reserve price on national rights, set at 800 million eurosand the expectation of international rights at 200 million euros. In October 2023, the call for tenders is declared unsuccessful. Nobody took a stand, nobody. Literally nobody.

Nobody believes in the profitability of French football at 800 million euros. Canal+ no longer wants to go therehe gave his all for European and English football. beIN Sports no longer wants to spend without counting. And Amazon, a new player, realized that even with a monthly offer of 12.90 euros for its Ligue 1 Pass, it never managed to exceed 1.8 million subscribers.

Between October 2023 and July 2024, nothing happens. Apart from the British group DAZN (pronounced “Da Zone”), no one wants to go there, no one believes in the ability to generate profits through French football. The clubs cannot build a forecast budget, cannot release funds for the transfer window, everything is at a standstill, nothing is moving forward.

A probable new casting error

It’s finally July 14, 2024, after weeks of procrastinationthat the conclusion is made: it will be DAZN for eight of the nine matches per day, against 400 million euros, and beIN Sports for the main poster every other time, against 100 million euros. The national rights of the French Ligue 1 have fallen to 500 million euros, while all the leaders were hoping for a billion. What a success…

And that’s not all. The business model presented by DAZN is scary. For eight out of nine matches (and not even the best match, one week out of two), in addition to the rights to the Women’s Champions League and other (meager) disciplines, like the French basketball championship from the start of the school year or certain combat sports, the press recently announced a monthly offer of 30 to 40 euros per monthIf we add the beIN Sports offer, we will therefore have to spend around 50 euros per month to watch the French Ligue 1.

Let us recall that in 2020, the Téléfoot channel, that of Mediapro, offered 80% of the matches, one Champions League match per day and the Netflix catalog for 29 euros per month and never exceeded 400,000 subscribers. Let us recall that Amazon, with Prime Video at 6 euros per month and its Ligue 1 Pass for 12.90 euros per month, has never exceeded 1.8 million subscribers. And there, DAZN and beIN Sports are positioning themselves for around fifty euros per month! Who seriously believes that?

The LFP leaders are killing French football, making it invisible. They have lost all common sense, are unaware that fans can no longer pay, can no longer change their subscription every year, can no longer be taken for cash cows. The Mediapro episode has not served as a lesson and they will bite their fingers. We are announcing the failure and flop of the DAZN channel in France over the next few years. You will have read it here first.



Source: www.slate.fr