Ligue 1 TV rights 2020-2024: "We're extremely dissatisfied with the situation" (M. Lombardini, Free)

"We are keeping our digital lot at the original 2018 price even though the overall price for Ligue 1 rights has been halved in the meantime (€1.153bn/year vs €624m/year) and the price of Mediapro's lots reallocated to Amazon by more than three (€780m/year vs €250m/year). We are therefore extremely dissatisfied with this situation. Others (Canal+) have initiated litigation, which has not yet been successful. This gives us the feeling that we have been led to pay a price in a speculative process that has never resulted in a real market price since the amount fixed in 2018 has never been paid. We have been the victims of a farce," said Maxime Lombardini, vice-president of Iliad, parent company of the French telecommunications operator Free, during the parliamentary information mission on the broadcasting rights of sports events, on 28/09/2021.

Free acquired the near-live broadcasting rights (digital lot) to the Ligue 1 Uber Eats, over the 2020-2024 cycle, for €42m per season on 29/05/2018. The operator sought to renegotiate this price with the LFP, but was unsuccessful, following the…