Ligue 1 TV rights: letter from O. Lyonnais to the LFP challenging the beIN SPORTS agreement (press)

Laurent Prud’homme, managing director of Olympique Lyonnais (Ligue 1 McDonald's), sent a letter to the Ligue de Football Professionnel on Wednesday 09/10/2024 challenging the agreement between the body and beIN SPORTS France concerning the domestic broadcasting rights to Ligue 1 over the 2024-2029 cycle, according to the daily L'Équipe on 10/10/2024.

beIN acquired the exclusive TV rights to one game per Ligue 1 matchday for €100m per season (including around €20m in sponsorship rights) on 01/08/2024. Olympique Lyonnais' managing director pointed to the fact that the pay-TV group has still not paid the first instalment due in August 2024 (unlike the DAZN platform, which holds exclusive TV rights to eight out of nine games per matchday for an average of €400m a year), thereby reducing the amounts paid to the clubs by 24%.

"We would like to begin by reminding you of the worsening economic difficulties experienced by clubs since the last allocation of audiovisual rights, which, as you know, led to a drastic drop of more than 60% in this revenue category, despite the fact that it is…