After months of deliberation and back-and-forth disputes, DAZN is set to end its Ligue 1 broadcast rights agreement after just one year into a new four-year deal.
DAZN and the Professional Football League (LFP) – France’s football governing body – came to an agreement to end the broadcast rights deal after LFP Directors voted to terminate the contract.
As reported by French sports outlet L’Équipe, DAZN will pay the LFP €100m to exit the agreement, as well as the remaining €140m it owes to the organisation for the final two instalments. The agreement will be presented to the Ligue 1 Board of Directors on 2 May for it to be finalised.
A DAZN statement sent to L’Équipe informed that there was an exit clause within the contract with Ligue 1 and LFP, and also revealed that the French football league is now focusing on developing a direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service.
The statement read: “There is an option to exit the contract that binds us to the league, because it wants to launch its channel project. This will give back its freedom to the LFP to launch its own 100% Ligue 1 antenna next season by probing the market to find a partner. DAZN is clearly positioned to be that one.”
“Coming to France, losing money and stopping after a year does not make much sense. We are convinced that we can bring great added value to the league as part of this chain project.
“Leaving the clubs in the unknown with a chain project that does not yet have the beginning of something concrete seems extremely adventurous to us three and a half months before the start of the championship. We are ready to invest a hundred million euros for this channel.”
There is still an opportunity, however, for the LFP and DAZN to continue to work together in the future. If the governing body is contemplating the launch of a standalone DTC streaming platform dedicated to Ligue 1, DAZN could provide operational support by sublicensing games on its platform.
However, for DAZN and the LFP to work together again, the LFP would have to waive the €100m compensation fee.
How did we get here?
The LFP and DAZN have been in a legal dispute since the start of the year over missed payments from DAZN, after the LFP argued that it had yet to receive 50% of its remaining instalments which the global streaming platform withheld.
DAZN believed that the LFP was failing in its collaboration with the platform to fight piracy and illegal streaming of its Ligue 1 broadcasts, which ultimately saw the LFP take legal action against DAZN.
A mediator was put in place in an attempt to smoothen tensions between the two parties. However, both LFP and DAZN laid out certain conditions if the partnership were to end or resume.
The LFP was calling for the broadcast rights deal to end, with a proposed €125m compensation fee – now confirmed to be €100m – and for DAZN to continue its Ligue 1 coverage until the end of the current 2024/25 season, as well as payout the instalments it owed.
DAZN took a different approach, proposing no compensation fee and a full payout of this year’s instalments, continuing the four-year broadcast deal with an obligation to pay the LFP various rights fees based on subscriber targets for the remainder of the agreement.
In the end, it appears the LFP won this case, with DAZN set to be dropped as a Ligue 1 broadcaster come the end of the 2024/25 season.
A first-ever move in Europe
As DAZN revealed in its statement regarding the exit of the Ligue 1 deal, the LFP seems to be moving forward with its desires to launch a DTC streaming service for the French top-flight league.
Ligue 1 would become the first-ever top five European football league to do so, a move that has been pondered by many league executives across the continent but never truly materialised.
The LFP first considered a DTC broadcast approach last summer when it was struggling to finalise a domestic broadcast deal for Ligue 1. While DAZN and beIN Sports came in at the last minute to come to an agreement, the idea continued to fester in the minds of the French footballing authority.
If Ligue 1 were to launch a Ligue 1 DTC service, and succeeds in doing so, it may send shockwaves across the football broadcast landscape if it can produce more revenue by cutting out third-party broadcast partners.
A standalone streaming service dedicated to a single football league would also be beneficial to fans, as it enables a singular platform to watch all games and avoid paying for up to two, three or even four TV/streaming subscriptions.
