While none of the five lots of 2024-2029 TV rights for Ligue 1 found a buyer on Tuesday, over-the-counter negotiations between the LFP and interested media will now begin, and could last several weeks.
No lot sold, no agreement found. The failure of the Ligue 1 TV rights auction marked a turning point on Tuesday October 17. This sale, organized by the Professional Football League (LFP), did not allow the lots to find buyers for the period 2024-2029. A failure “predictable” and which marks the end of the dream of the billion euros, said to AFP Philippe Bailly, president of NPA Conseil, a firm specializing in audiovisual economics.
How can we understand that no media wanted to pay 530 million euros per season for the first lot or 270 million for the second?
Philippe Bailly: This failure was predictable, at least on lot 1. From the moment Canal + was not there [après l’annonce en septembre de son refus de participer, NDLR], we couldn’t see which actor was going. On lot 2, this confirms what we could have expected for Amazon Prime Video, which would have paid more (than its current lot of 250 million euros) for a less qualitative portfolio.
Vincent Labrune, [président de la LFP, qui avait annoncé viser le milliard d’euros en cumulant les droits vers l’étranger, NDLR] Did he see himself as too beautiful? He did the job: to sell your car you don’t say that the tire is flat, you redo the paint and say it is in good condition. But the billion is now out of reach… I don’t know if Labrune believed it.
What are the possible scenarios for over-the-counter negotiations in the coming weeks? Can Canal + on bad terms with the LFP get back into the game?
Canal + might want to take two matches including the one on Sunday evening. The group no longer absolutely needs the L1 but the Sunday evening match preceded by the Canal Football Club magazine is anchored as a tradition. For Amazon, what is most likely, if the batches can be reknitted, is to do as in England or the United States, where it only has a limited number of matches, like a gift to normal subscribers, and to remove the Ligue 1 Pass, which is an exception for them.
The 2nd batch could go to beIN or DAZN [la plateforme de streaming sportif]. BeIN Sports are not the ones who have shown the most appetite from the start, they said: “Why not, but we won’t break the bank”. In a game that is played over the counter, where there is no longer any constraint on the price, they could want to grab a prize, in particular to expose PSG [les deux entités ont pour actionnaires principaux le fonds qatari QSI, NDLR].
Is Ligue 1 once again paying for its lack of attractiveness compared to the English Premier League or the Spanish Liga?
Overall, the football TV rights landscape is stagnant. In Italy for example, they have been negotiating for four months and they still have not landed. The only country where duties have increased is Saudi Arabia [qui a recruté des stars à prix d’or l’été dernier, NDLR]. But the good news for Ligue 1 clubs is that in a context where many people in Europe are playing on flattened envelopes, it will be easier to keep or buy players.