The situation of DAZN is worrying at the highest level of French football, the main broadcaster of Ligue 1 being far from reaching its subscriber target. But in private, Vincent Labrune refuses to give in to panic.
With barely more than 400,000 subscribers, DAZN is very far from its initial objective of 1.5 million people willing to pay to follow the French Ligue 1 championship. The situation is all the more critical as the platform has been constrained to make promotional offers with a price of 19 euros per month instead of 29 euros per month in order to boost its subscriptions. There is reason to panic according to Romain Molina, for whom it is simply impossible for DAZN to achieve its objectives in terms of number of subscribers. An economic fiasco is inevitable in the eyes of the journalist.
“DAZN has almost doubled its number of subscribers, but this is mainly thanks to the 19 euros per month offer. But I remind you that the break-even point calculated by DAZN at 1.5 million subscribers was based on a price of 30 euros per month. But today, since you sell most of your subscriptions at 19 euros, you no longer need 1.5 million subscribers, you need much more. Economically, it is an absolute industrial crash. In terms of visibility, you have absolutely none. And the worst thing is that even at 19 euros, it's super expensive because you don't have anything around the match, it's low-cost” regretted Romain Molina on his YouTube channel. But while on the LFP side, we could fear a catastrophe and a possible black screen in Ligue 1 within a few months, Vincent Labrune refuses to give in to panic.
Labrune and his LFP channel project
On the contrary, the former president of OM perhaps sees it as the ideal opportunity to launch the official League channel according to the journalist. “There is a risk that DAZN will stop. The LFP is letting it happen because there are growing louder and louder whispers that Vincent Labrune has not abandoned his idea of a TV channel owned by the League. Which would allow it to have even more of a monopoly and influence over the presidents of Ligue 1. There is always this idea from Labrune to say that if DAZN breaks its face, it will find something” launched Romain Molina. Vincent Labrune is therefore trying to turn the situation to his advantage, but the launch of a channel published by the LFP would entail many risks, which the presidents of Ligue 1 were not ready to take last summer. A possible collapse of DAZN would therefore be the worst news in the short term for French football.
