French Will Have to Pay to See Ligue 1 Games on TV

By: Laurie | February 13th, 2008

It’s money-grubbing! It’s undemocratic! It’s limiting less wealthy fans’ access to their beloved teams! It’s…it’s just like in the US!

Inara over at Lyon Offside has done a great job keeping English-speaking Ligue 1 fans aware and informed of what’s been going on the TV rights in France.

In a nutshell: The league wanted money. The TV folks didn’t want to pay it. Both sides played hardball.

Unfortunately, Canal+ were very unhappy with the absence of a real title race in France, and coupled with the lack of big players and the low amount of goals scored, Canal+ went around saying how they had spent too much money on French football and refused to commit a similar amount for their next deal. They had assumed – and rightly so – that no other French broadcaster could afford anything close to what Canal+ could offer, even if it was a much lower amount, like €450m.

But what the suits at Canal+ didn’t expect was the LFP’s controversial decision to split broadcasting rights into 12 “lots,” which suddenly made L1 much more affordable for smaller broadcasters, such as Orange. These lots basically split up coverage of L1 football into different groups of matches (such as Sunday games, Saturday games, magazine programs, etc).

The end result? More money for the league, but all twelve lots were bought up by only two companies: TF1 and Orange. And both are pay companies. This means, if I’m reading things correctly, that only ninety seconds of games can be broadcast on free channels. No, not ninety seconds per game. Ninety seconds per DAY.

At first I was shocked by this. It was great for the league, which really needs the money. But it’s so unfair to the fans who have supported the teams.

And then I remembered that in order to watch MLS (let alone any other games from around the world) I had to buy a package that included both ESPN2 and Fox Soccer Channel. A package that cost three times what my basic, soccer-free cable had cost.

I guess that for once when it comes to soccer, the rest of the world is catching up to the US.

Is this a good thing?