Even if the LFP board of directors devoted to the hot issue of L1 television rights (period 2024-2029) was scheduled for this Friday morning, by videoconference, some still traveled to the body’s brand new headquarters , in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Jean-Pierre Rivère (president of Nice), Waldemar Kita (Nantes) and Marc Keller (Strasbourg) notably attended the meeting alongside the League teams, the majority of the other speakers being remotely.
On the menu: the almost final outlines of the LFP’s plan B, a project for a 100% L1 channel distributed non-exclusively by all operators, the function of which is to avoid the black screen when the Championship resumes on the 16th august. This channel would rely on seven potential distributors: the four ISPs (Internet service providers), namely Free, Bouygues, SFR and Orange, but also Amazon Prime Video, the main broadcaster of the last three seasons, Molotov TV (a Internet channel distributor) and Google TV. But these market players do not a priori offer guaranteed minimums to the League… The proposals consist of a percentage paid for each subscriber recruited, but not a fixed sum disconnected from the success of this new antenna dedicated to French football.
Benjamin Morel, the general director of the LFP commercial company, presented the project, discussing the technical, editorial and financial aspects. As revealed The Teambroadcasting resources have already been purchased months ago (notably a control room) in order to be able to start on time.
beIN Sports and DAZN still in contact with the LFP
Present at the meeting, the leaders of CVC, the fund which offered 1.5 billion to the LFP against 13% of its commercial revenues, supported this initiative. Especially since it is the only one on track, because plan A (the same 100% L1 channel, but made by beIN Sports and distributed exclusively by the Canal+ group supposed to generate 700 million in annual revenue) is at a standstill. And never even existed according to the encrypted channel.
The other avenues mentioned as alternatives to this channel launched by the LFP are beIN Sports and DAZN, the British company wishing to develop on the French market. Both are still in contact with the LFP and could eventually come out of the woods.
At the end of the council meeting where nothing was acted upon or voted on, Jean-Pierre Rivère and Marc Keller did not wish to speak. Waldemar Kita said to himself “ seduced » by the presentation of the channel. When questioned about a subscription price of 25 euros per month which could put off the French, he said: “You know, in France, we don’t like talking about money”. If he recognizes that the financial future of his club depends on it, he still believes in an alternative with broadcasters: “We can sometimes have individual problems but wisdom always comes back in the end. I really like Canal+ and I still believe in it! ».
