Amid the TV rights slump, operator Free announced on Tuesday that it was making its Free Ligue 1 service free until the end of the current season.

On Europe 1, the operator's editorial director, Frédéric Goyon, believes that this service is not yet "completely democratized" among football fans.

DECRYPTION

While the future of Ligue 1 broadcasting is still uncertain, due to an unsuccessful tender for TV rights, Free is speaking out.

During the last call for tenders in 2018, the internet service provider had won a lot for the 2020 to 2024 seasons, with a quasi-direct offer on Free Ligue 1 Uber Eats.

The operator announced Tuesday that its application would be free until the end of the season, for its subscribers as for others.

"Real room for improvement"

Free had planned to offer this content to its subscribers and charge others, but it changed its mind.

"We realize that it is a use that is not completely democratized, recognized and identified by users", explains the editorial director of Free, Frédéric Goyon, at the microphone of Europe 1 in

Culture Médias

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We still have efforts to make to convince football fans

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"We realize that there are more and more people coming to the Free Ligue 1 service, but that we still have a real room for improvement and efforts to make to convince football fans to come and test this type of consumption ", recognizes the leader.

"It is new, it is very different from traditional diffusers, which we consider to complement and not replace."

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Uncertain future

To date, according to Free, the app has been downloaded 600,000 times.

For its part, Médiamétrie announces 200,000 unique visitors only on the application in December.

But despite the operator's wishes, its future is uncertain.

To be able to broadcast the extracts of the matches, the matches must in fact be filmed, and therefore they must have a broadcaster.

On this issue, the League should take the floor during the day, 48 hours after the failure of the call for tenders launched for the rights abandoned by Mediapro.