Football fans complain about the obligation to stack subscriptions and the current call for tenders for Ligue 1 rights is not designed to reassure them. On the side of broadcasters, we now have enormous fear.
816 euros per year. This is what it costs football fans on television if they want to follow all the competitions broadcast in France during a season. This is in fact the total price for subscribing to Canal+, Prime Video, Beinsports and RMC Sport. As for the Professional Football League, where we are working hard to find broadcasters capable of paying nearly 900 million euros per year, a new danger has appeared in recent months and it is only growing. It is a messaging application developed in Russia which worries the LFP, the 18 Ligue 1 clubs, but also and above all the television channels. Its name, Telegram. Because at a time when the technical measures taken by the LFP and the rights holders have had a little effect on the web and on
250,000 viewers for Barça-PSG
As Eloi Thouault recounts in The Teamduring the recent Barcelona-PSG match in the Champions League, if Canal+ Sport was delighted to have brought together 2.36 million viewers, a record for the channel, on Telegram, there were more than 250,000 people to follow the same meeting for free with very good quality and without any bugs. Even if the fight rages on, since one of the LFP service providers claims to block up to 2,000 links leading to the free broadcast of Ligue 1 matches, with Telegram, an ultra-secure application, it is becoming increasingly difficult for police against thieves. Because it must be clear, the Telegram accounts which give these matches can win big, a hacker cited by the sports daily mentioning a gain of 20,000 euros in one weekend by sending advertising to the 200,000 subscribers to his account.
And this even if those who are caught risk up to 3 years in prison and above all a colossal fine. So obviously, at a time when Ligue 1 clubs are waiting for a huge check from Beinsports, Canal+, DAZN or Prime Video, Telegram has become a real subject of concern. Because this enormous shortfall does not encourage the channels concerned to pay more and more for broadcasting rights.
