2023-09-12 16:37:10
The ball is now in the court of the candidates, who have until October 16 to submit an offer. They will be able to position themselves on two batches of live matches: the first with the two best posters and the No. 4 choice of each day, and a second with the six other matches.
A price has been set for each lot, with a view to auctioning on October 17: 530 million for lot 1, 270 million euros for lot 2.
By adding the rights of Ligue 1 abroad, which will be put into play later, the League is targeting one billion euros per season, as its president Vincent Labrune had already announced in June in L’Equipe.
Currently, the rights in France amount to 624 million: Canal+ pays 332 M EUR for two matches, Amazon 250 for seven posters and the operator Free 42 for extracts from quasi-live matches. With the 80 million international rights, the total reaches 700 million.
In addition to the two main lots revealed Tuesday during a press conference in Paris, candidates will be able to position themselves in three “magazine” lots, weekend or weekday shows.
Five years
New, “our rights will be marketed for the first time for a period of five years (compared to four previously, Editor’s note), this is very good news for the LFP, our future partners and the consumer”, rejoiced Vincent Labrune .
One of the key questions will be the positioning of Canal+, in conflict with the League since the arrival of Amazon. The encrypted channel felt wronged because it considered that its prize of two matches, previously purchased from BeIN Sport, was now overvalued.
After announcing her desire to withdraw, she increased legal action, in vain, and was ordered by the courts to broadcast and pay.
“Canal+ is a historic, important player, we are going to let them analyze our call for applications, we will see what happens,” reacted Vincent Labrune, who said in June in the columns of L’Equipe that Canal+ would not no offer.
Besides Amazon and Canal+, BeIN Sport remains a potential candidate. The League can also hope for a newcomer. DAZN, a sports streaming platform, which already owns the rights in Italy, Germany and Spain, has said it wants to position itself. The platform also entered into a broadcasting agreement with Canal+ for L1 in July.
– Without Messi or Neymar –
According to Vincent Labrune, the arrival of the CVC investment fund in 2022 as a minority shareholder of the commercial subsidiary created by the LFP in the summer of 2022, the transition from 20 to 18 clubs, record crowds in the stadiums as well as investments massive recruitment this summer – – the L1 was the second most spending league in Europe behind the English Premier League -, will help the LFP to sell its rights, estimated Vincent Labrune.
Conversely, the departures of Messi and Neymar, who left PSG this summer, should be placed in the negative column. “I cannot consider that it is a good thing,” he regretted, “but it does not depend exclusively on their presence” or that of French star Kylian Mbappé, regularly announced as leaving.
French football will especially want to avoid reliving the “period of very strong turbulence” of three years ago, continued the president of the LFP, referring to the “triple Covid tsunami, forced cessation of the competition, failure of Mediapro”, the Sino-Spanish group which had won the main rights for the period 2020-2024 for a record amount but proved to be unable to honor its commitments from October 2020.
Furthermore, the Sunday match at 1:00 p.m. will disappear, in favor of a new slot on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. The Sunday multiplex has been moved from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
In the event of failure of the call for tenders, the League “will be ready for any eventuality”, maintained Vincent Labrune, including that of negotiating over the counter. In this case, the tight timing for rights starting in the summer of 2024 will be “not a subject”, he assured.
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