French soccer’s top-flight Ligue 1 has announced that its Ligue 1+ in-house channel, which carries the majority of the competition’s weekly games, has already attained over 1 million subscribers, exceeding its full-season target after only the first month of the competition.
Ligue 1+ exclusively holds the rights to eight of the league’s nine weekly games, and shows the ninth game (a BeIN exclusive live game) on a delay.
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The service launched in mid-July 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.
Of the subscriber numbers, 1.026 million to be more precise, 72% have committed to the annual package as opposed to the rolling monthly commitment.
Both of those price points are well below what last season's primary domestic rightsholder, DAZN, was charging.
DAZN, by comparison, never hit seven figures for subscribers in France during its rights stewardship, peaking at between 500,000 to 600,000, a tally that Ligue 1+ matched by the competition’s opening weekend.
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By GlobalDataThat low price point, combined with the array of content on offer, which includes Mediawan-produced ancillary content and shoulder programming, has obviously attracted fans looking for a streamlined content offering, compared to DAZN, where they may have felt that they were overpaying for content they did not want just to watch Ligue 1.
The LFP league organizer also attributed the success thus far to the “strong public attachment” to the Ligue 1 sides, the “immersive editorial offering” which is made possible by the support of the clubs in creating content, and the “efficient” distribution model.
Indeed, Ligue 1+ is carried by a number of the country’s biggest TV and telecom players, including Boygues Telecom, Free, Orange, SFR, Molotov, and Prime Video, among others, as well as DAZN itself, which carries it as a paid additional channel on its platform.
Looking forward, the next milestone the LFP is looking to hit with the channel is the 2 million subscriber mark, which the league is aiming for in the future, something that was hinted by Joseph Oughourlian, the president of Ligue 1 side RC Lens, who also suggested in an interview with French outlet RMC that the service could jump from €14.99 to €18.99 in the future, a change that could see Ligue 1+ revenue grow to upwards of €300 million.
At the time, speaking on the launch of the channel, LFP Media director general Nicolas de Tavernost said: “We are taking control of our own destiny, we expect a difficult couple of years ahead when it comes to the establishment of an asset, the returns of this channel will be progressive.”
Speaking to RMC, LFP president Vincent Labrune added: “We have greatly reduced our Ligue 1 clubs’ dependence on domestic rights.
“All our economic indicators are on the rise. Commercial rights, international rights, UEFA rights… Yes, there is a problem with domestic rights, but it's not for lack of looking for solutions for two and a half years, solutions that we haven't found because the market is what it is."
“We have club owners who are ready and who have all endorsed this channel project, which is a medium- to long-term project, because they have the means to cope with one or two years without domestic rights. We must stop thinking that Ligue 1 will collapse because there are no domestic rights.
“The channel is risky, it’s not easy, but it’s exciting. It’s an adventure, and it’s disruptive. We said we wanted to create an innovative league. French football also means launching your own product.”
