Ligue 1 and the Professional Football League are already looking for new broadcast partners for the next cycle as its dedicated streaming service is reliant on subscription revenue.
The French Professional Football League (LFP) is expected to launch the tender process for Ligue 1 broadcast rights in October.
The tender process will be for the broadcast rights cycle starting from the 2029/30 season, ending at the end of the 2033/34 season.
LFP Media President, Olivier Bramly, has reportedly held discussions with incumbent broadcast and streaming companies, such as Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Paramount, according to L’Équipe.
Bramly has also held preliminary talks with existing Ligue 1 broadcaster Canal+. Maxime Saada, CEO of Canal+, has reportedly informed the LFP that they remain interested in acquiring Ligue 1 rights as part of the next broadcast rights cycle.
Ligue 1’s current primary domestic broadcaster is Ligue 1+, the in-house streaming service dedicated to showing all 360 Ligue 1 games. The LFP’s streaming service holds exclusivity for all Ligue 1 games until the end of the 2028/29 season.
Former LFP Media CEO, Nicolas de Tavernost, recommended the LFP should begin a tender process for the next Ligue 1 broadcast rights cycle at the end of 2026.
Why start the Ligue 1 tender process so early?
Ligue 1’s domestic broadcast situation in France has been nothing short of complicated, to say the least.
In May 2025, its domestic broadcast agreement with DAZN was scrapped after DAZN withheld payments to Ligue 1 after the streaming service believed the French top-flight football league was not cooperating in its efforts to mitigate piracy of Ligue 1 games on the service.
The DAZN agreement was cancelled after just one season and after receiving lukewarm interest from incumbent partners for the current broadcast cycle, the LFP opted to create its own streaming service: Ligue 1+.
While this made all Ligue 1 games per season available for cost-effective subscription packages, a subscription-led broadcast revenue model heavily relies on increasing customer subscriptions, as opposed to hard, guaranteed revenue sent directly from the broadcast partners.
L’Équipe believes Ligue 1 clubs are set to earn €78.5m from the current beIN Sports deal, which broadcasts Saturday afternoon Ligue 1 games, while also benefiting from the €85m sent from the collapse of the DAZN deal.
While it is currently unknown what subscription revenue will be for clubs after the 2025/26 season, it was reported in October 2025 that Ligue 1+ could earn $166m across all 18 clubs.
This is significantly lower than the €325m per season commitment DAZN made when it became Ligue 1’s primary domestic broadcaster in 2024, before it was terminated less than a year later.
Among the uncertainty of broadcast revenue, French football clubs have also run into financial troubles. FC Girondins de Bordeaux, 2008/09 Ligue 1 champions, filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and ultimately had to give up its professional status. French giants Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique de Marseille have also experienced financial difficulties in recent years.
Searching for new broadcast partners for the next cycle highlights the LFP’s need for a more reliable broadcast revenue model for its clubs.
Launching the tender process early allows the LFP to assess the market’s appetite for Ligue 1 football as part of its offerings, as many new players to the market, such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Netflix, have invested more in sports broadcast rights in recent years.
