Report: beIN and Ligue 1 finally put pen to paper on media rights contract
Credit: Victor Velter / Shutterstock

It seems that the broadcasting drama French football found itself in during 2024 had been solved when DAZN and beIN Sports stepped in with a last minute rights deal – but this wasn’t entirely the case.

Ligue 1, the French top-flight football league, faced the prospect of starting the 2024/25 season in August 2024 with no solid broadcast deals in place. Luckily for the league, it clinched an eleventh hour deal with the above-mentioned broadcasters.

However, beIN believed that the deal was more favourable to DAZN, according to French media outlet L’Equipe. As a result, it refused to sign the contract and paid its monthly rights fees late until this week, when an agreement was finally reached.

A beIN statement seen by L’Equipe read: “beIN Sports is pleased to have settled the outstanding points of negotiation with LFP Media (the commercial subsidiary of the League) regarding the media rights of Ligue 1 in France, for which beIN has made a significant financial commitment – despite limited offers – for one match per week,” said a spokesperson for the broadcaster.

“beIN is proud to support and promote French men’s and women’s football at all levels, both professional and amateur, since 2012. In addition, regarding beIN’s innovative solution to generate additional revenue for clubs through sponsorship, all clubs wishing to sell their unsold sponsorship stocks now benefit from assistance in finding solutions directly with representatives of interested commercial partners.”

The agreement will mark a return to financial stability for French football, at least until the next media rights cycle is up for renewal. The current arrangement with DAZN and beIN will last until 2029, and for beIN’s part the French-Qatari broadcaster will pay €98.5m a year, with the January 2024 settlement of €15m having just been settled.

French football was facing a financial disaster had DAZN and beIN not stepped up last year. Ligue 1’s bigger clubs like Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Marseille and Monaco would likely have been able to weather the storm due to strong branding, international reach and commercial deals.

However, its mid-sized and smaller teams are much more dependent on media rights revenue and some reports suggested that a large number of French top-flight teams and most Ligue 2 teams were at risk of bankruptcy.

L’Equipe also reported that a specialist company has been tasked with implementing a sponsorship caveat to Ligue 1’s deal with beIN which will promote Qatari companies. This may help the top-flights teams further diversity revenue streams and prop up financial stability over the coming years.

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