Ligue 1 TV Rights Tender 2027-2032: What the LFP Is Selling
The LFP brings its 2027-2032 Ligue 1 rights to market two years early, offering one exclusive package. What changed, who might bid and what’s at stake.
Media Rights Two Years Early and All in One Package: French Football Puts Ligue 1 Back on the Market
French football is going back to the broadcast market, and it is not waiting for the current cycle to end. The board of the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) has approved a tender for Ligue 1 rights covering 2027 to 2032, two years before the existing deal was due to expire. For the first time, every match can be sold in a single exclusive package.
The bidding window runs from 3 November to 7 December . LFP president Vincent Labrune described a more favourable environment than in past tenders and said several parties had registered concrete interest over recent months. The move was driven by Olivier Bramly, chief executive of the league's commercial arm LFP Media, who spent around three months sounding out potential buyers before recommending an early sale.
What has changed: the law, not just the mood
The structural shift is legal. A recently adopted law on the financing of professional sport now allows the LFP to bring all of its broadcasting rights together rather than splitting them into separate lots. Previous tenders carved Ligue 1 into packages, which left the league exposed when the main buyer walked away and pushed fans into paying for more than one service.
A single lot offers something French football has not been able to sell in years: total exclusivity. According to French reporting, bidders will be offered two routes : distribute the league's existing channel, Ligue 1+, or build a channel of their own around the competition.
Ligue 1+ won the audience but not the economics
Ligue 1+ launched in summer 2025 after the league failed to find acceptable offers on the open market. Editorially it has worked. The channel claimed 1.1 million subscribers in the spring , and OM against PSG drew an audience of 932,000.
The money is the problem. LFP Media chairman Nicolas de Tavernost told the French Senate the channel generated about €150 million in gross revenue against around €65 million in production and content costs, before distribution fees. Sports rights consultant Pierre Maes has estimated the net figure in the first season at no more than about €90 million. Either way, it is a fraction of what French clubs once received.
Maes has been blunt about what the early tender signals. In comments reported by The Media Leader FR , he argued that if Ligue 1+ were working, the league would not be in such a hurry to sell, and described the last two tenders as resounding failures.
Before the LFP ended its long relationship with Canal+ in 2018, domestic rights were worth close to €600 million a year. Since then, the league has lived through the collapse of Mediapro, a cheaper deal with Amazon, and a 2024 agreement with DAZN for eight matches per round that came with a 1.5 million subscriber target. DAZN fell well short of that target and exited after a single season, which is what forced the league to launch its own channel.
Who could bid
Before the tender was approved, Bramly met several market players, including Canal+, RMC Sport, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video , according to L'Équipe. The presence of global streamers is the key difference from 2024. Netflix has already moved into football rights, having recently acquired 2030 World Cup rights in Spain .
Canal+ remains the name many club presidents would most like to see back. Whether it returns is uncertain. Analysts expect the broadcaster would only commit to a deal with strong financial returns, which means a price well below the levels of the 2010s.
Why the timing matters for clubs
French clubs have spent two seasons absorbing a sharp drop in central distributions, and many have been selling players and cutting wage bills to stay compliant with the DNCG, the French financial watchdog. Bringing the sale forward gives clubs a chance to lock in a guaranteed fee from 2027 rather than wait for subscriber growth on Ligue 1+.
The league also keeps its fallback. Ligue 1+ gives the LFP a working channel, a subscriber base and production capability, so it can walk away from low offers in a way it could not in 2024. Labrune made the point directly, telling Sud Radio and other French media that French football is now in a position to choose its future.
The key numbers will be the annual fee, how much of it is guaranteed rather than linked to subscribers, and whether the winner takes Ligue 1+ as it is or builds its own channel. A guaranteed fee above what Ligue 1+ currently returns would be a clear win for the league. A bid built on revenue share would mean clubs still carry much of the risk.
A test for the wider rights market
Ligue 1 is not the only league testing demand this autumn. Scotland's SPFL has just opened its own Premiership tender for 2028-29 onwards. But France is the bigger test. It is a top-five European league with a global superclub in PSG, offering full exclusivity to buyers who until recently showed little interest in French football. The result will show whether streamers see domestic league football as a core product or a selective add-on.