Insiders Analyze the Ligue 1 TV Rights Fiasco | OneFootball

Club football is finally back after the last international break of 2025, and there are quite a few savory options available for football fans in the United States. They can find every single Premier League match on NBC or Peacock, and they can also watch Serie A strikers like Lautaro Martinez and Adam Buksa bang in the goals on Paramount+. American viewers will be able to catch every LaLiga and Bundesliga match on ESPN+, and find the MLS Conference Semifinals on Apple TV+. And for those who are keen to watch every single UEFA Champions League match all at once, they can tune into Paramount+ and watch Nico Cantor go back and forth between the simultaneous games on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

However, when it comes to watching Ligue 1, options are far more scarce. Unlike the aforementioned leagues, which have exclusive streaming deals that allow every match to be shown, Ligue 1 doesn’t have that kind of clout or abundance. As such, viewers are forced to choose between splurging on an exclusive TV package with an app like beIN Sports, beIN Sports Connect, Fubo, and Fanatiz, or downloading the brand-new, direct-to-consumer streaming service Ligue 1+. To understand the complex situation of Ligue 1 TV rights in the U.S., we spoke to two leading experts: Paris-based journalist Jonathan Johnson and Philadelphia-based Jonathan Tannenwald, the chief football correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Interviews edited for clarity.

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Part One: Jonathan Johnson

ZL: What is your opinion of the beIN TV deal in the U.S.? Do you think it could be coming to an end very soon?

JJ: I know of the situation in the States, but I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced it firsthand (being based in Paris, France), although I would say I’ve experienced the limitations of that situation by handling the coverage of Ligue 1. For pretty much the entire time that PSG has been owned by Qatar, it has never truly felt like the number one priority for beIN in the U.S. There was a time where beIN was the American home of La Liga and Serie A, but even after those rights moved on to other broadcasters, it feels like Ligue 1 never really became the number one property for beIN over there.

This always struck me as very odd, because it was a great opportunity to really push Ligue 1 to get a better foothold in the American market at a time when there was definitely demand for it. But one thing that always seemed to be troublesome with beIN, if you speak with people in the U.S. who want to watch Ligue 1, has always been the accessibility—whether it’s PSG, or another club in the league. I think over here in France, from a European point of view, there has never really been a clear understanding of how beIN functions when you live in the U.S., nor how easy or how difficult it is to actually tune in and watch Ligue 1 matches.

I think there is now a basic understanding in Europe that, for the most part of Ligue 1’s time with beIN in the States, it has been primarily a streaming option that’s been available to fans, and a lot of the feedback has been negative in terms of how accessible it is, and how reliable the streaming quality is. It just seems like there has always been this potential for Ligue 1 to either be co-broadcast by another provider or perhaps moved to a different broadcaster entirely to reach a bigger market of people. It has always seemed to be very limited in the U.S. and never of the same stature as beIN’s Middle East or France operations.

ZL: The Premier League has NBC and Peacock, LaLiga, Eredivisie, and Bundesliga have ESPN+, Serie A has Paramount, and yet Ligue 1 does not have anything. How much of an issue do you think that is?

JJ: I think it’s been hugely problematic, but I also think that we can’t really solely focus on the international TV rights situation. Ligue 1 has had problems in the last five years or so, certainly from the period just before and after COVID, where you’ve gone through 2-3 different domestic TV rights deals, and none of them have stuck. The majority of them have been unrealistic, or unfulfilling from the point of view of the broadcaster paying the money for those rights, and I think if Ligue 1 can’t even have sorted itself out domestically, it’s very difficult to argue that it should really merit a huge improvement on the international front.

Now, I totally agree with your line of questioning. I think Ligue 1 is hugely undervalued, not only domestically, but also internationally. However, Ligue 1 has historically sent out, at least in the last five or so years, a fairly negative image of itself because of poor governance and the way that they seem to lurch from crisis to crisis. I think that puts off a number of the biggest names as potential broadcasters who really want to get involved to help Ligue 1 and French football grow, particularly the teams outside PSG.

Like you said, it seems like it’s only really PSG games that you’re able to access when you’re tuning in to beIN the U.S. I do think that negative image that Ligue 1 and the LFP [Ligue de Football Professionnel]—the governing body of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2—has created a lack of appetite internationally for people to want to get involved with French football. Unfortunately, that is taking a lot of work to undo the damage done over the last couple of years. That is on top of a situation in which, since the arrival of Qatari ownership in Paris, the entire Ligue 1 product missed a huge opportunity over more than a decade to really push Ligue 1 to close the gap on some of its European competitors. It has created this situation now where Ligue 1 and French football, both in terms of the domestic TV rights deals as well as international ones, are trying to make up ground on its rivals. It is also trying to improve its performances on the continental scene as well, and we’re seeing those teams finally start performing better in recent years.

Part of that, though, is tied into an interesting scenario within the TV rights discussion—the investment of CVC Capital Partners into the LFP media arm. Teams are now incentivized to earn a larger share of the TV rights money by performing well in Europe. That creates an imbalance within the league as clubs that don’t compete in Europe get little to nothing in terms of TV money, and the lion’s share of a very small amount of TV rights money goes exclusively towards the clubs competing in UEFA competitions. I think with all of these different complicating factors over the last couple of years, a lot of people internationally have looked at Ligue 1 and felt, understandably at times, that it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

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