While the League entered into negotiations with each operator after an unsuccessful tender, the start of the season, with numerous scoreless matches along with incidents in and outside the stands will not have a big impact on the negotiations, assures international consultant Pierre Maes.
The surprise resignation of OM coach Marcelino after a tense meeting with supporters, the stone-throwing of the OL bus, the interruption of Montpellier-Clermont after a projectile was thrown at a player… There you go for the dark side of the French championship, no more enlightened by the quality of the spectacle, with 0-0s in chaos (15/97 matches, this is the most frequent score this season). Ligue 1 is having a particularly disappointing start to the season in its first year under an 18-team format designed for greater redistribution of TV rights to clubs. The Professional Football League expected to see the amount of the new contract, for the period 2024-2029, increase to one billion euros per financial year.
But the call for tenders proved unsuccessful on October 17, with the operators not wishing to pay the price requested by the body. It is in this context of low attractiveness, on and off the pitch, that the LFP negotiates with potential broadcasters interested in the lots it has placed on the market, over the counter. Not enough to change everything to the point of causing the amount of TV rights to skyrocket according to specialist Pierre Maes, international consultant on the subject and author of the book “The Ruin of French football”published by Fyp in 2022.
Franceinfo: sport: Can the weak spectacle offered by this start of the Ligue 1 season have an influence in the negotiations of TV rights for the French championship?
Pierre Maes : A major influence? Certainly not. A marginal influence? Certainly. All of this contributes to the current climate. The League is trying to sell a product that does not arouse the enthusiasm of crowds or broadcasters. Above all, we are in an economic environment where candidate broadcasters are not as numerous as the League would like. After a wildly launched call for tenders which ultimately ended in failure, the dynamic is certainly not good. But all this is marginal insofar as the most important thing, and this is what determines the price, is the competition between operators to acquire the rights. And this competition does not really exist because Canal+ is in a quasi-monopoly situation.
How can you say that Canal+ is in a quasi-monopoly situation?
Canal+ has entered into agreements with the last competitors in the running so as not to compete with them head-on. The main ones are beIN and DAZN. The only one with which no agreement has been made is Amazon, which did not respond to the call for tenders. The group was very happy to pay so little and I don’t think the experience was that successful [le groupe américain diffusait 80% des matchs de la L1 depuis la saison 2021-2022]. In addition, Amazon’s situation has completely changed since then. 50,000 people were laid off and they put an end to experiments of all kinds. Others have disappeared, including the Altice group (RMC Sport) which threw in the towel after overinvesting like a cowboy in TV rights.
Can an operator who finds himself in a position of strength, like Canal+, try to reduce the bill by taking advantage of the lack of spectacle on the grounds currently?
Over the counter, this is an argument that will certainly be used in negotiations. But I don’t think it’s the type of argument that will win you 50 million euros. Certainly, there is a quasi-monopoly on the Canal+ side, but there is a real monopoly and it is that of the League. It is the League which will determine the price.
So the League is not in a weak position after all?
She has the strongest position. On the other hand, the power of broadcasters has increased thanks to the low competition between them. It is only when the League is faced with several broadcasters with deep pockets, who compete to acquire the rights, that the balance of power is 100% in its favor. If you want to buy the rights to Ligue 1, there is only one place to buy them, and that is the LFP.
If we add the incidents inside and outside the stadiums, like in Marseille, does the balance of power still lean towards the same side?
In all cases, the No. 1 factor is competition. It represents 95% of the price definition. It won’t have a major influence, but a marginal one. This generally gives the League an unprofessional image. In the Premier League, it’s been 20 years since they solved the problem of violence. That the LFP is still faced with this problem without showing a clear trend towards resolution is not good, especially for international broadcasters.
How long will it take to reach an outcome?
The League has shown a significant appetite and has made a big communication on very ambitious objectives, which means that it is likely to last a long time. The moment an agreement is there, inevitably at amounts much lower than what was expected, we will have to save face. All this will take time. They have until the start of next season.
Has Ligue 1 reached its ceiling of attractiveness? Is it completely disconnected from reality, especially when we see that TV rights are falling in other major European championships?
It’s very clear. We are completely off topic, if not off topic. This aggressive communication from Vincent Labrune [le président de la LFP] on the billion ambition was very surprising. The club presidents didn’t really relay this. The Italian League had to suffer a further decline. The Premier League rights are on the market and you won’t hear anyone saying they’re eyeing a raise. They know the market and its difficulties well. It’s exactly the same situation there, Sky is in a strong position, like Canal+ in France. But, unlike France, there is no cowboy who will tell you ‘we are going to make 1 billion or 1.5 billion’.