Canal+’s victory in the battle for TV rights for the Champions League sounds like bad news for Ligue 1.
The leaders of Canal+ can have a smile. Despite competition from new players such as Paramount, the encrypted channel has in fact retained exclusive rights to the Champions League and all European Cups. And at a slightly lower rate than that paid since 2022.
But by all accounts, this great victory for Canal+ constitutes a real disaster for Ligue 1. The loss of the rights to the Champions League would in fact have forced Canal to turn to Ligue 1, forced last summer to launch its channel. And despite the success of the latter, with already more than 1.1 million subscribers, revenue for the clubs remains limited.
“For the Canal+ subscriber that I am, I am delighted. For the lover of Ligue 1, which I also am, I am totally discomfited, thus confided the journalist Hervé Penot on the set of The Evening Team. There will be a renegotiation of TV rights in 2027, although we see that it is very complicated and that it will be even more so next season. »
Big concern for certain Ligue 1 clubs
“But there is still a little time left and we hope that we will mend things (with Canal) because for me, the natural essence of Ligue 1 is Canal +. Canal+ made Ligue 1 and Ligue 1 also made Canal+, you have to have the recognition of the stomach, but also of the heart, he continued. I had this hope, because I don’t see any other solution and here we have just been hit in the face and today, the only thing that can save Ligue 1 is multi-ownership. Because you will never make me believe that Ligue1+ reaches subscription thresholds of 3 or 4 million subscribers. »
And Hervé Penot continues by expressing his concern for certain elite clubs. “We know very well how it works. There is a call for tenders, there is a breath, there are a lot of people, but after that, it runs out of steam and I don’t see how we can return to acceptable revenues, around 600-700 million euros and which would allow Ligue 1 to regain its momentum. I’m sorry, you have to explain to me how half of the Ligue 2 clubs or a third of the Ligue 1 clubs like Angers, Le Havre or Metz are going to make their budget. »
