The first figures have fallen and they are not cheerful. A direct consequence of the TV rights crisis in Ligue 1, the elite clubs see their revenue linked to the reduced media exposure to sorrow. According to “the initial distribution guide for audiovisual rights and the termination indemnity of Dazn Ligue 1 2025-2026 season” that the team could have, the prospects are worrying.
Despite an withdrawal allowance of 85 million euros at the Dazn borne, and while BeIN Sports must always pay between 80 and 100 million euros for the rights of a Ligue 1 match per day, plus 40 million euros for all of the retransmission rights of Ligue 2, the charges remain such that the benefits for this exercise will be most limited.
If we believe the projections validated on August 7 by the Board of Directors of the Professional Football League, while the operating costs of the LFP have jumped and the budget is considerably burdened by CVC – the investment fund which at the end of the pandemic maintained French football afloat by injecting 1.5 billion euros in the coffers of clubs against 13% of the annual recipes, Ligue 1 will have to share a maximum of 80.5 million euros this season, including 35.6 million for Europeans alone.
A dizzying drop in income for Ligue 1
Upon arrival, at least well endowed, the 18 representatives of Ligue 1 will oscillate between 4.67 and 1.44 million euros in domestic TV rights. 3.5 times less than last season, which had not already been a happy new year in the matter (between 16.1 and 5.18 million euros, then).
While Nicolas de Tavernost, the boss of LFP Media, welcomes the successful launch of the new platform dedicated to the L1-Ligue 1+-with already “more than 600,000 subscribers” identified for the first competition weekend-the professional football league hopes to reach this year 1.2 million subscribers, for around 150 million revenues. Or the barely double of the current windfall.
