DAZN urgently seeks 1.1 million subscribers

While L'Equipe claimed that DAZN had reached the symbolic mark of 500,000 subscribers, the reality is different. And the contract with Ligue 1 is threatened.

By obtaining the signing of a contract with DAZN during the summer by securing 400 million euros per season for Ligue 1, the Professional Football League had imposed the presence of a clause which means that the contract could be denounced if in one year, the channel does not have 1.5 million subscribers. A clause which surprised DAZN, but which was validated by both camps. And barring an improbable turnaround, there will be no need to wait until December 2025 to know that this objective will not be achieved in a year. The revelations of Arthur Perrot, who is following this file to BFMare dismaying, since the sports media currently only has 400,000 subscribers and not 500,000 like The Team said last week. Even the huge advertising campaign put in place before OM-PSG did not have the expected effects. On the DAZN side, there is radio silence on the number of subscribers, the broadcaster of eight of the nine posters per day of Ligue 1 simply saying that this figure “ is in the trajectory that we have set for ourselves since our arrival in France ».

DAZN noted the damage of the hack with OM-PSG

Nevertheless, and even if the current promotion (19.99 euros per month for an annual commitment) will be extended until the end of the year, it is difficult to see how DAZN could recruit 1.1 million subscribers within a year. Because the major concern is that piracy has established itself in the French football landscape, and those responsible for the sports channel bitterly noted this during the clash between Olympique de Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain. Germain, the battle waged against illegal streaming did not prevent dozens of accounts from broadcasting the meeting even though everything had been put in place to ruin the lives of the pirates during this meeting at the top of the League. We now need to know what DAZN and the Professional Football League will negotiate to skip this famous objective of 1.5 million subscribers, the idea still being that by then the LFP is preparing its own channel. The broadcasting rights issue will therefore remain a subject of concern for Vincent Labrune and the strategic advisory committee of LFP Média where Lens and OL have joined in particular Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Pablo Longoria.