Ligue 1 TV rights 2020-2024: Free (telecoms) summons the LFP to court after Canal+ and beIN

The French telecommunications operator Free has summoned the LFP before the Paris Court of Justice on 15/03/2022, in order to claim a revision of the price of its contract concerning the broadcasting rights to the Ligue 1 Uber Eats over the 2020-2024 cycle, according to the French sports daily L'Equipe on 11/04/2022.

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 reallocation of the rights formerly held by Mediapro to Amazon on 11/06/2021. beIN Sports France and Canal+ are also in dispute with the LFP over the matter (see below).

"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…