How much will the bill be for following your favorite club?

The question came back with insistence throughout the year, as the market for TV rights has been jostled in France.

Bankruptcy of Mediapro, resumption of matches by Canal +, sub-dismissal at BeIN Sports, new call for tenders, Amazon which takes the stake… Difficult to navigate in this tragicomic spectacle.

The allocation by the Professional Football League of the former “Téléfoot” lot (ie 80% of the matches including that of Sunday evening, including the 10 best posters for Ligue 1, the Ligue 2 multiplex and the magazine Sunday evening), to Amazon for 259 million euros per season has not helped. First because we did not know how the giant of the American Net was going to film and broadcast its matches, then because Maxime Saada, the boss of Canal +, was very angry.

The first point, the broadcast of 80% of the matches, was clarified on Tuesday. Amazon has announced the launch of its Amazon Prime Ligue 1 channel, available at 12.99 euros per month without obligation only for its Prime subscribers (who already pay 5.99 euros per month or 49 euros per year). It will be launched on August 1, on the occasion of the Champions Trophy. This match, which will oppose PSG and Lille, as well as the Sunday magazine will be accessible to Prime members without a Ligue 1 subscription. The eight Ligue 1 matches per day will be broadcast there.

Ligue 2 is the subject of an agreement between Amazon and the L'Equipe channel.

Throughout the season, the multiplex of the eight matches on Saturday at 7 p.m. will be broadcast unencrypted by the TNT channel.

During the first 10 days, each match will also be broadcast in full for free on the new Live Team platform.

Then, these matches will in turn go to Amazon Prime Ligue 1.

. @ lachainelequipe, new multiplex broadcaster @ Ligue2BKT for the 2021/2022 season!



For the first 10 days, these 8 matches will be followed for free in their entirety and exclusively on @lequipe Live.



📺📱 See you on Saturday July 24 at 7:00 p.m. pic.twitter.com/DxhZwGfE4A

- the L'Équipe channel (@lachainelequipe) July 13, 2021

This agreement goes in the direction of an increasingly strong complementarity of pay and free channels, the former being able to broadcast competitions on which they cannot match financially, the latter benefiting from an exposure to convince the seduced to subscribe.

"This" Multiplex "format, invented by the radio, is perfectly suited to free media, welcomes Laurent Prud'homme, CEO of the L'Equipe group.

Its dynamic rhythm, the fact of going from one match to another, of showing all the goals, all the clubs in two hours of time is the best format to promote Ligue 2 to a large audience ”which will therefore be able to go further with Amazon.

A platform only available on the Internet

Alex Green, the boss of sports at Amazon Europe, for his part explained that this allowed the platform to focus on the launch of Ligue 1 matches before extending the device. Concretely, Amazon Prime Ligue 1 will therefore be more of an extension of the Amazon Prime Video streaming platform, and not a linear channel. “The heart of our offer is the matches,” says Green. The broadcasts around the matches and the Sunday magazine will also be done live from the stadiums rather than in a large Parisian studio. Since there is no channel to "live" during the week, no other magazine is planned, unlike what Mediapro had done.

A downside, however, with this organization.

This type of platform is not accessible for TV via satellite and TNT, which represents a third of households in France.

Alex Green, however, wants to be confident: “We already have a large distribution network, with millions of Prime members in France.

We are already on several Internet boxes, those of Orange, Bouygues, SFR, Free.

We are also available on a large number of connected objects such as smartphones, connected TVs, game consoles.

It's really easy to find us.

"He also indicates that he does not plan to" speak with Canal + "to find a distribution agreement.

Canal + and BeIN Sports want to leave the contract

This shows the atmosphere that reigns in the world of broadcasters. As for the remaining matches, shared between Canal + and BeIN Sports, things could still change. At present, the two remaining Ligue 1 posters must be broadcast by the encrypted channel, and the last two of Ligue 2 by the Qatari channel. But Canal +, which pays 332 million euros in sub-license to BeIN Sports, does not hear it that way, now considering the bill too expensive compared to what Amazon pays.

The channel therefore sent a letter to BeIN Sports and to the LFP to indicate its intention to withdraw from the contract.

It therefore does not intend to broadcast the first day of Ligue 1, nor to pay BeIN the first installment of 55 million euros.

In the entourage of the Qatari channel, the possibility of following the movement rather than broadcasting the matches was mentioned.

BeIN Sports has not set its first deadline for Ligue 2 matches either, but is maintaining the broadcast of the first day for the moment.

The LFP could well find itself without a broadcaster for these matches… The case is far from having rendered its verdict.

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  • Amazon Prime Video

  • LFP

  • The team

  • Canal Plus

  • BeIN Sport

  • Soccer

  • League 1

  • League 2

  • TV rights

  • Media

  • Sport