The Professional Football League (LFP) announced Thursday that it had received “numerous offers” for its audiovisual rights abroad for the period 2024-2029, now indicating that it was embarking on a “period of analysis”.
“Following the launch of the consultation relating to the international rights of Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and the Champions Trophy, more than a hundred agencies and broadcasters have withdrawn an application file. LFP Media has received numerous offers relating to one or more territories. A period of analysis begins now to allow the LFP Media teams to identify the best opportunities and prepare the appropriate follow-up to be given to the marketing process,” indicated the LFP in a press release.
“LFP Media will thus be able to decide to allocate the rights in certain territories, to begin discussions or to launch new phases of consultations targeted to particular regions,” added the League. The annual foreign broadcast rights for Ligue 1 are currently around 80 million euros per year and are held by BeIn Sports.
This figure is much lower than other major European championships: more than 160 million per year for Germany, 670 million euros for Italy, almost 900 million for the Spanish La Liga and almost 1.8 billion for the English Premier League. The LFP, which has set itself the objective of reaching 200 million euros for the broadcast of its matches internationally, is counting heavily on this call for tenders to increase the overall amount of its TV rights, especially after the The failure of the consultation for France on October 17, which opened a period of over-the-counter negotiations with high uncertainty with interested broadcasters.
This snub thus destroyed the League’s chances of bringing the total TV rights for French football to 1 billion euros, as its president Vincent Labrune wished.
