Going by circuitous routes — in other words theIPTV illegal — to watch sports competitions without paying the official broadcaster, this has been a common practice for years. But since the launch of the 2023/2024 season of the Ligue 1 championship last August, more and more viewers are visibly succumbing to the sirens of pirate streaming.
A context of “dangerous shift”
In question: the prices charged by DAZNthe main official broadcaster of Ligue 1, whose €30 per month subscription raises eyebrows among many football fans. Many of them turned to Telegram, where there were streams to watch the matches (a practice which has calmed down since the arrest in France of Pavel Durov, the boss of the messaging service).
Read IPTV: what are the real risks if you use an illegal service?
But nature always finds a way. A study by the Ipsos institute commissioned by the LFP indicates that 55% of viewers of the match between OM and PSG on October 27 watched it illegally. The figure was revealed by Benjamin Morel, general director of LFP Média, during a meeting at Arcom dedicated to the fight against piracy of sports content.
This is all the more worrying since Arcom led a legal guerrilla war against piracy just before the Classico, obtaining the blocking of 340 IPTV sites. “ DAZN, broadcaster of most of our matches, suffers from pirate competition while interest in L1, its flagship product, is undeniable “, he said in comments echoed by The Team.
According to this same survey, 37% of Ligue 1 viewers watched matches through illegal channels. And more than a quarter of people (27%) who watch games illegally have started doing it this way this season! “ We are in a context of dangerous shift », alarms Benjamin Morel who also recalls that “ prices can in no way justify piracy which is theft and, I remind you, illegal ».
DAZN has reportedly recruited 500,000 subscribers for its Ligue 1 offer since the start of the season. To reach financial balance, the platform would need double the number of subscribers in the first six months. A bet far from won. DAZN recently launched promotions to speed up recruitment, at €20 per month… But it will always be too expensive for fans of free.
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Source :
The Team
