After an endless series, the LFP sold its TV rights to DAZN and BeInSports last summer for 500 million euros. An amount far from satisfactory for professional clubs… but not only.
Over the past twenty years, the TV rights paid by broadcasters for Ligue 1 have continued to decline. Last summer, a new threshold was crossed since DAZN and BeInSports will pay less than 500 million euros per year for the broadcast of the French championship. A downward figure which logically has consequences on the cash flow of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs, whose presidents must absolutely review their economic model to avoid being in difficulty. But the decline in TV rights over the decades does not only have consequences on professional clubs.
In a paper devoted to amateur football, Radio France explains that the constantly decreasing figure for TV rights is also detrimental to an entire ecosystem and not just to football. It is notably recalled that in 2000, the communist minister Marie-George Buffet introduced a 5% tax directly levied on the amount of television rights for French football and then redistributed to amateur sport as a whole and not just to football.
The drop in TV rights hurts amateur sport
“In 2020, 5% of football television rights represented around 75 million euros. Today, according to the government, this amount has fallen to 60 million. But, with the halving of television rights, the “Buffet” tax is currently estimated at 40 million euros, which leads to enormous losses. raises Radio France, which therefore insists on the fact that the reduction in TV rights has enormous consequences for Ligue 1 but well beyond. Hence the importance of better promoting our championship for the LFP and its president Vincent Labrune in the years to come in order to find a more acceptable level of television rights. We will nevertheless have to be patient because the contracts with BeInSports and DAZN cover the period 2025-2029 even if between now and then, many twists and turns are possible.
France
