It’s been a few months since I talked about the TV rights situation of Serie A. Then, I took a very close look at how the system currently works, what Cardinale wants to implement to ‘rescue’ Italian football, and what the next concrete steps are. I would actually recommend reading that piece before this one, because this is sort of a follow-up.
Anyway, I was reminded of the above when I was having a look at Ligue 1+ a few days ago, and more specifically the subscription numbers of it. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ligue 1+, it’s a streaming service that the French league launched itself ahead of the 2025-26 season (after a test with League 1 Pass), opting for a direct-to-consumer solution.
Okay, let’s take a few steps back, direct to consumer? I cannot say that I’m an avid follower of the league, but I have been keeping tabs on the TV rights situation (from a distance) for quite some time now. The chaos that I, and many others, have predicted related to the broadcasting/streaming bubble bursting certainly played out in the French league a few years back.
A four-year deal worth a total of €3.25bn was signed with the Spanish company Mediapro, but it didn’t even take four months before the company had trouble meeting payment deadlines. Eventually, the agreement collapsed entirely and Ligue 1 was left scrambling for an emergency deal. This was in 2020.
The years that followed were so tough, in terms of selling the TV rights, that Ligue 1 officials decided to take matters into their own hands. That led to the launch of Ligue 1+, going straight to the consumer (i.e. direct to consumer!) as opposed to entrusting a broadcaster like DAZN or a media company like IMG with the distribution.
Given that we have previously discussed a similar solution for Serie A, I wanted to take a closer look at the initiative. What can we learn from it? How is it doing so far in terms of revenue? There are many interesting questions.
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