Footballer Ikoma-Lois Openda on camera, during the match between Lens and Strasbourg at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, in Lens (Pas-de-Calais), April 7, 2023. FEP / ICON SPORT VIA GETTY IMAGES
What is Ligue 1 worth? This is a question worth more than a billion euros, estimates the Professional Football League (LFP), as the new call for tenders for the broadcasting rights of the French championship is launched on Tuesday September 12. of football. However, its president, Vincent Labrune, recognized in June what “the macroeconomic and financial context is delicate”.
The LFP hopes for up to 850 million per year for the sale of rights to audiovisual broadcasters in France, and around 200 million abroad, according to the daily The team. The French call for tenders is divided into two lots: the three posters « premium » and the remaining six matches per week. The LFP indeed wishes to simplify “readability for the consumer” and avoid “ regular subscription changes ».
She explained this in an internal document (consulted by the sports daily), written to obtain from the French authorities the extension of rights by four to five years, from 2024 to 2029. Despite this extension intended to attract new players, “the period of soaring prices seems to be behind us”, thinks Philippe Bailly, from the research firm NPA Conseil. Beyond the departures, actual or announced, of star players like Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr. and Kylian Mbappé, the analyst points to structural reasons.
624 million euros per year today
The case of Prime Video, currently the main broadcaster of Ligue 1 with seven out of nine matches, illustrates the challenges. The Amazon subsidiary only acquired the rights following the failure of Mediapro, a Spanish audiovisual group which had initially purchased the rights to Ligue 1 for 780 million euros per year, allowing the LFP to sell the French championship for a total of 1.15 billion…
Unable to assume its investment, Mediapro abandoned its matches, which were bought for only 250 million by Prime Video. With the 332 million paid by Canal+ for the two premium posters initially held by BeIN Sports, and the 42 million from the operator Free (whose founder, Xavier Niel, is an individual shareholder of the Monde), the rights for France today do not exceed 624 million per year.
Read also: TF1 has acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights to matches of the French football team until 2028
To remain a Ligue 1 broadcaster, Amazon would a priori be forced to increase its investment. Will he want it? Sports economist Pierre Maes doubts it. “Prime Video’s sports offering in France is atypical for Amazon: the platform markets a large number of matches there, via an additional subscription of 14.99 euros per month,” he notes. Elsewhere, the more targeted rights acquired by the Web giant are integrated into its Prime service package (fast delivery, series and films, etc.).
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