“Over the next three seasons, we will be very far from the amounts we had”: MHSC and Ligue 1 face TV rights problems

Le président pailladin est inquiet. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

La chute des droits télé fragilise les clubs modestes et creuse un peu plus le fossé avec les candidats à l’Europe

The soap opera dragged on until the middle of summer. Vincent Labrune, the boss of the Professional Football League (LFP) sought to pick up the thread of a negotiation of which he was no longer the master. He pushed back the deadline before the verdict fell at the end of July and did not knock out all the modest players in French football, such as Reims, Nantes or Montpellier.

Verdict : 500 M€ instead of the billion dreamed of, pending negotiations for international rights and other savings. 500M€ and two broadcasters : the British DAZN and BeIN, a rift within the French leaders and the disastrous epilogue of the failure of Mediapro, a Spanish broadcaster which denounced its contract in the fall of 2020. The source of the LFP's errors, and the evaporated confidence with Canal +, flows from there. The war between the Lfp and Bolloré, a man of all-round power (media, politics, publishing, etc.), does the rest.

Evolution of TV rights in France since 1998

1998-99 : 106M€

1999-2002 : 122M€

2002-04 : 266M€

2004-05: 375M€

2005-08 : 600M€

2008-2012&nbsp ;: 668M€

2012-16 : 607M€

2016-20&amp ;nbsp;: 726M€

2020-21 : 650M€

2021-24 : 624M€

2024-29&nbsp ;: 500M€

The consequence is terrible for clubs with tight budgets including Montpellier. “We don't have the final amount. For now, we are assured of 7 million euros, whereas we had 19.5 million euros last year. We divided this amount by three. We will try to go up to 8, 9 or 10 to limit the damage. Over the next three seasons, we will be very far from the amounts we had”, recently explained the president Laurent Nicollin, forced to review his strategy.

In 2019, on the eve of the Mediapro mirage, Montpellier, with a balanced budget until then, was looking towards a European future. With an upward ambition, to say the least. Five years later, he is disillusioned. TV rights are falling, the future Louis-Nicollin stadium is postponed, and he has headaches writing the post-fiftieth anniversary.

Montpellier never played among the best in a globalized football world, invested by investment funds or Middle Eastern states, but its finances were spinning freely and allowed it to see bigger. Today, it must fight to balance its budget and play in Ligue 1. Like the other clubs in the second half of the ranking in the hands of entrepreneurs with financial resources incomparable with multinationals, champion of timeshare .

State of TV rights abroad

Here are the TV rights in the four major European championships, with international rights in parentheses

Premier League (2022-25): 4120 M€ (2100 M€)

Liga (2022-26): 2029 M€ (700 M€)

Bundesliga (2021-25): 1300 M€ (200 M€)

Serie A (2021-24): 1100 M€ (200 M€)

The gap promises to widen between those who play in Europe and those who only play in the championship. The former benefit from a constant windfall and from the share of international rights from Ligue 1. The others see their means revised downwards. Is this irreversible? ? The contract is signed for five years, with a clause after two or three years.

For the viewer, the cost is also high. For the French championship alone, not to mention Europe, broadcast on Canal Plus, and the other European championships. This deal looks like a bad move at all levels of French football.

TV rights in France this season

– DAZN will broadcast eight Ligue 1 matches every matchday and the ten best games of the season, as well as the Arkema Premier League and the Women's Champions League.

To access all of L1 and other sports broadcast on the platform, a subscription will cost  €29.99 with a 1-year commitment. Without commitment and with 1 month's notice to cancel, it will be 39.99 euros monthly.

DAZN offers a formula, with a single poster at 14.99 euros per month with a one-year commitment (19.99 euros without commitment) for a single match broadcast on Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

– beIN Sports offers one Ligue 1 match per day. He will have first or second choice, alternating every other week, L2, La Liga, the Bundesliga and the French cups.

– Canal + (which is also the exclusive broadcaster of beIN) for all European competitions and the Premier League, as well as the Arkema Premier League.

Has French football entered a negative spiral since the Mediapro fiasco?? It is moving away from the four other European championships: England, Germany, Spain and Italy. And, risks becoming more than ever the training center.