France's Ligue 1 Has a Broadcast Rights Dilemma

For over a decade, one of the most regular occurrences in European Soccer has been Paris Saint-Germain finishing at the top of Ligue 1. Since the 2012-13 season, teams other than PSG have won the league all of twice. There’s an easy answer for why: in 2011, Qatar Sports Investments purchased the club; since then, countless global superstars have played for the club, including Lionel Messi, David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović.

When Messi left the team last year, PSG announced a shift to a system of looking locally rather than internationally for players. It probably didn’t hurt that the departueres of both Messi and Neymar left one huge name still there: Kylian Mbappé. who grew up near Paris and developed his craft in AS Monaco’s academy. But now Mbappé is gone from PSG and Ligue 1 as well — and the latter is facing a broader crisis than simply the loss of the league’s marquee player.

As RMC Sport reports, Ligue 1 has yet to find anyone willing to pay what the league is seeking for its domestic broadcast rights. The league has lowered their price compared to what they’d sought in 2023, As for why they did that, the answer is simple: no bidders stepped forward with an interest in paying a billion Euros for the 2024-2029 Ligue 1 seasons.

Sources who spoke with RMC Sports suggested that Ligue 1 cutting its expected valuation of the broadcast rights could further devalue them. They’ve also considered debuting their own digital network, according to reporting from SportsPro. It’s left some clubs uneasy, given the growing prominence of broadcast rights to every team’s revenue.

It’s also interesting to consider this news in light of a New York Times piece by Rory Smith on the second-division club Paris F.C. This team, Smith wrote, had begun giving away massive numbers of free tickets to its games — in part, one expert suggested, because a packed stadium would look better on television.

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Ligue 1 has long had a reputation as one of Europe’s “Big Five” soccer leagues. That a league with such history and prominence is in this position illustrates the challenges facing numerous sporting entities right now. But while some of its issues might be wide-spread, it’s hard to shake the sense that at least some of the issues here are of Ligue 1’s own making.