Ligue 1+, the in-house streaming service owned by French soccer’s LFP league organizer, will broadcast the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup in the country after striking a deal with the global soccer governing body.
Nicolas de Tavernost, chief executive of the LFP Media commercial subsidiary, confirmed the deal earlier this week at a meeting of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 teams, with Ligue 1+ scooping up the rights to all 104 games of the tournament.
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This 104-game package will include the 54-game slate already held by free-to-air commercial network M6, which Ligue 1+ will showcase alongside the linear broadcaster.
The streaming service, which houses Ligue 1 domestic rights after the collapse of a prior broadcast agreement with DAZN, will now fill the gap between seasons with international soccer's flagship tournament.
According to French outfit L’Equipe, the World Cup will cost the LFP €20 million ($23.94 million) in all, €18 million for the rights themselves, and €2 million in production costs.
Soccer’s showpiece event will be held in 16 host cities across the United States, Mexico, and Canada from June 11 to July 19.
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By GlobalDataThe 2022 World Cup, in which France reached the final, achieved massive TV viewership success in France, with the final between France and Argentina generating the country’s highest television audience on record, with an average of 25 million viewers across free-to-air and pay-TV.
With France expected to perform well again in the 2026 edition, interest should be high, and LFP Media will hope the move allows the service to retain subscribers through what would usually be a down period for league-specific direct-to-consumer offerings.
This marks the first external rights deal for Ligue 1+, and a prospective change of strategy for the streaming service, which may require additional content to attract more viewers to meet the revenue shortfall from Ligue 1’s own cancelled media rights agreements.
The service launched in mid-July 2025 at a price point of €14.99 ($17.66) per month for an annual subscription, or a non-committal monthly tier at $19.99 per month.
Back in September 2025, it was reported that of the service's (then) 1.026 million subscribers, 72% have committed to the annual package as opposed to the rolling monthly commitment, which accounts for about €132.9 million per year from the around 738,000 annual subscribers, again a strong early indicator but far from making up for the rights shortfall.
This may become a more pressing issue as, despite Ligue 1+’s early success, the service may need to triple, or even quadruple its current subscriber base, or drastically increase its subscription price, to match the media rights income from even its disastrous recent cycles.
