- Ligue 1 launching in-house DTC service after split with DAZN
- League seeking €200m for package but Canal+ was reportedly only willing to offer half of that
- New season starts in just a month and a half
French broadcaster Canal+ has walked away from a proposed deal to distribute Ligue 1’s new in-house direct-to-consumer (DTC) service.
The country’s top-flight soccer league is due to broadcast games next season on its own streaming service after the Professional Football League’s (LFP) split with domestic broadcaster DAZN over a dispute regarding subscriber numbers and alleged failures by the league to combat piracy.
That five-year deal, which also included BeIN Sports, was only signed in August 2024 and was worth a reported €500 million (US$586 million) annually.
However, the collapse of the DAZN agreement, which saw the streamer air eight out of the nine Ligue 1 fixtures each matchday, seemingly left the league out of options to secure long-term financial security for its clubs, prompting plans to create a domestic streaming service – the first to be launched by a major European soccer league.
To expand the reach of its DTC service, Ligue 1 had been in talks with Canal+, a former broadcaster of the league with around nine million subscribers in France, about becoming the platform’s exclusive distributor.
Ligue 1 had reportedly been seeking €200 million (US$234 million) for a package that would also have seen Canal+ co-broadcast the Sunday evening match.
Canal+, though, is said to have only been prepared to offer €100 million (US$117 million) and that stance has meant the deal is now off, with Canal+ chief executive Maxime Saada telling L’Équipe that “the conditions were not right”.
Ligue 1 is reportedly canvassing interest from multiple networks and internet providers for its DTC service, including Amazon Prime Video and Orange. It could even seek a new distribution agreement with DAZN.
The Ligue 1 DTC service had been expected to launch in early July, but that may now be delayed. The service is due to show eight of the nine games per matchday, with BeIN continuing to broadcast the remaining fixture.
Ligue 1 is also seeking partners on the production side, covering pre- and post-match shows and magazine programming. Mediawan and L’Équipe-owned 21 Production are reportedly in the mix. The hope is that the direct involvement of clubs in the DTC service will ensure more premium content that can help attract subscribers.
According to reports, a subscription to the Ligue 1 streaming service will cost €14.99 (US$17.57) per month. In contrast, a subscription to DAZN to watch Ligue 1 was €39.99 (US$46.88) per month.
The 2025/26 Ligue 1 season kicks off on 15th August, giving the LFP less than seven weeks to gets its DTC product ready and secure a distributor capable of broadening the service’s reach and driving subscriptions.
Canal+, which aired Ligue 1 games between 1984 and 2024, said it would not bid for the domestic rights to the competition after a break down in its relationship with LFP. Specifically, the broadcaster was unhappy at being overlooked in favour of an eventually disastrous deal with Mediapro in 2018 and then frustrated by the LFP’s unwilling to renegotiate its contract with Canal+ after Amazon was awarded a cut-price package in 2021.
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