Following a tie-up in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland with Italian soccer’s top-tier Serie A, global streaming service DAZN has unveiled a deal in the same trio of countries with France’s Ligue 1.
DAZN unveiled earlier today that, through a three-year deal with the LFP Media arm of French soccer’s league body, Ligue 1 action will be shown in the DACH region for the next three seasons (2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27).
This represents an extension in Germany and Austria, but a new deal in Switzerland, where over the last cycle (2021-24) action was shown live by pay-TV’s Blue. Canal Plus also covered the league in that territory last year.
Indeed, next season will mark the first time DAZN - which launched in Switzerland in August 2016 - covers Ligue 1 action live in that neighboring market.
As well as the 20-team league, the deal also includes rights to the annual French Trophée des Champions.
Viewers will be able to watch games with commentary options in German, French, and English.
The previous DAZN deal in Germany and Austria for Ligue 1 action also ran through the 2021-24 cycle and was unveiled in August 2021.
German players plying their trade with clubs in Ligue 1 include Thilo Kehrer at Monaco and Reda Khadra at Reims.
This new tie-up has been unveiled with the LFP still struggling to secure the future of Ligue 1’s domestic rights for the next cycle.
The organization initially tendered the rights to both Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 for the next cycle on September 13 after being granted permission by the French government to extend the length of the contracts from four to five years.
The LFP was hopeful that the increased five-year contract length would attract bids of more value than its high reserve prices for the two main packages of live Ligue 1 rights which originally stood at €530 million and €270 million per season, respectively - however, this has not been the case.
That none of the five lots met the reserve price indicates that the prospective rightsholders have a significant difference in the valuation of the product to the LFP.
It has been reported that the LFP is now considering creating its own direct-to-consumer channel to show games to avoid a media blackout at the start of next season.
This is viewed as one of several options as the league’s struggle to sell domestic rights continues.
Another option will be to return to the negotiating table with broadcasters such as BeIN, Canal Plus, Amazon, and DAZN and significantly lower its demands.
DAZN DACH, meanwhile, is also in the middle of a dispute with the DFL body in Germany over the tender for the next set of top-tier Bundesliga rights. This dispute has led to the whole process, for the sale of domestic rights to the 2025-29 Bundesliga cycle, being suspended.
