The 10th day of Ligue 1 started with two matches, Friday November 1, but followers of the French Football championship were unable to see anything on social networks. The main broadcaster, DAZN, recently gave up sharing goals scored on Ligue 1 pitches on its digital platforms, X, TikTok or Instagram. Since last weekend, a form of blackout of the most spectacular actions in French football has therefore taken place on social networks.
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At the start of the season, DAZN decided to share some of them almost live during each day. A decision welcomed by many observers, as this highlighting of the championship on digital platforms had been long awaited. But less than three months after the start of the 2024-2025 Ligue 1 season, the new broadcaster has backtracked.
“After “freemium” [modèle qui propose des contenus gratuits pour attirer des consommateurs vers ceux qui sont payants] initially in order to make the brand known to the widest possible audience, the idea is now to promote the service to our subscribers. It’s a classic marketing strategy”we specify at DAZN, which acquired last July the broadcast of eight of the nine matches of each day of Ligue 1, for an amount of 400 million euros per year, until 2029.
The subject had already been debated in 2021
The British platform, which dreams of being the “Netflix of sport”, is therefore turning away from a valuable loss leader product. Especially since with around 500,000 subscribers – according to an estimate of The Team Friday – it has only reached a third of its equilibrium point. At the end of 2025, if DAZN has still not reached 1.5 million subscribers, the broadcaster or the Professional Football League (LFP) may request to terminate the contract at the end of the 2025-2026 season. which binds them. In order to attract new customers, DAZN has instead decided to extend its promotion launched in September until the end of 2024, with an increase in its subscription from 29.99 euros to 19.99 euros per month, as well as of a one-year commitment.
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The new broadcaster's counter-stance on sharing goals on social networks is not in line with the LFP's recent intentions. The latter wishes to modernize the image of Ligue 1 and promote it, particularly on digital platforms where there is a young audience, rather than restricting its accessibility in this way. In recent years, the institution headed by Vincent Labrune had often been criticized for its conservatism on the subject and had therefore decided to evolve.
In October 2021, the splendid goal scored by Stéphanois Wahbi Khazri against Metz, with a 60-meter lob, relaunched the debate. The LFP had not sold the rights to use images of the championship on social networks to Amazon Prime Video, the broadcaster at the time. The Tunisian player's exploit therefore went completely unnoticed on X, Tiktok and Instagram. At least in France.
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While Amazon Prime Video was content with an unfortunate diagram to describe the action, the images of the goal were in fact relayed by numerous accounts based abroad. Geographic blocking, however, prevented French fans from viewing them. The latter had to wait until Monday morning to see the goal with their own eyes. The LFP then justified its desire to protect the rights acquired by broadcasters and to fight against piracy.
Canal+’s aggressive strategy
Scalded by this “bad buzz” and finally convinced by the model of the NBA and the NFL – whose broadcasters have been sharing video extracts for years without seeing a drop in their number of subscribers – the League therefore concluded a agreement with DAZN, during the allocation of rights in July, on the exploitation of these sequences on digital platforms.
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The recent shift by the broadcaster, which arrived on the French market only a few months ago, impacts the promotion of Ligue 1. When contacted, the LFP did not wish to react to this decision. The French championship, in addition to suffering sporting competition from the major European championships, now finds itself relegated on social networks behind the numerous images of goals scored in the Champions League and the Premier League. The broadcaster of these two competitions, Canal+, does not hesitate to share them extensively.
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Ligue 1 followers can still watch the match summaries published on the LFP YouTube channel… on Monday morning. Or access the goals almost live – one minute after they have been scored – on Free Foot, which formed a partnership with DAZN during the allocation of the rights. But for this, fans must download the dedicated application. An additional approach that is sometimes crippling, which does not make it possible to stem a growing phenomenon of the invisibility of Ligue 1.
