When Ligue 1 kicks off on 23 August 2026, French clubs will start a season with no external broadcaster paying them for their product. They are the broadcaster. And they carry the full commercial risk.
This is the second season of an experiment without precedent among Europe’s big five leagues. After DAZN withdrew in the summer of 2025 and beIN Sports exited on 31 December 2025, the Ligue de Football Professionnel found no buyer for its domestic rights at an acceptable price. Through its commercial subsidiary LFP Media, it launched Ligue 1+, an owned-and-operated streaming platform. From 2026/27, all nine matches of every round are carried there exclusively.
The financial consequences are now documented. In late April 2026 the LFP circulated a 21-page distribution guide to its clubs — flagged as indicative and provisional, but binding enough to serve as the basis for budgets submitted to the DNCG, French football’s financial regulator. The headline number: of €412.2m in gross broadcast revenue, the 18 top-flight clubs will share €184.1m.
For context, that is less than a single Premier League club earned last season.
The waterfall: from €412.2m to €184.1m
What makes the French case analytically interesting is not the low top-line figure. It is how much of that figure never reaches a club.
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Ligue 1+ revenue (domestic) | €170.1m | LFP Media projection |
| France Télévisions | €1.0m | free-to-air highlights |
| International media rights | €137.6m | distributed partly via Infront |
| Other revenue | €103.5m | incl. beIN Sports (Ligue 2), Trophée des Champions |
| Gross revenue | €412.2m | |
| less: platform operating costs | −€121.4m | production, technology, distribution |
| less: CVC Capital Partners share | −€65.5m | perpetual revenue participation |
| Net available for distribution | €225.3m | 54.7% of gross |
| less: Ligue 2 allocation | −€29.2m | 18 second-tier clubs |
| less: relegation support | −€12.0m | 2 clubs relegated from Ligue 1 |
| Net to Ligue 1 | €184.1m | 18 clubs |
Of every €100 generated, roughly €54.70 reaches a professional club and about €44.70 reaches a top-flight club.
The CVC line deserves particular attention from anyone modelling league-level private equity deals. In 2022 CVC Capital Partners injected around €1.5bn into LFP Media in exchange for 13.04% of adjusted revenues — in perpetuity, with no expiry. Against media revenues of roughly €500m in the good years, that was a manageable coupon. Against the current base, this single line absorbs more than a third of what all 18 Ligue 1 clubs receive combined.
The platform’s €121.4m operating cost is the second structural burden, and it behaves differently from a rights fee. It is largely fixed. It is incurred whether Ligue 1+ has 800,000 subscribers or two million. Under a traditional rights sale, that cost sat on the broadcaster’s balance sheet. Under the owned-and-operated model, it sits on the clubs’.
Two pools, and only one is open to everyone
The €184.1m does not get shared evenly. It splits into two strictly separated pools.
| Pool | Size | Eligible clubs |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic media rights | €112.5m | all 18 top-flight clubs |
| International media rights | €71.6m | only clubs holding a UEFA coefficient |
| Total | €184.1m |
The second pool is where the political fight sits. Eligibility runs off the indice UEFA — a club’s European coefficient built from participation over recent seasons. Clubs without one are largely excluded: of the internationally generated money, reporting from the Ligue 1 college of clubs indicates only around €6.5m is shared across all 18, with the overwhelming remainder reserved for the “Européens”.
That arrangement is now openly contested. RC Lens president Joseph Oughourlian has been among the most vocal advocates of broader distribution. In June 2026 a proposal reached the college under which Champions League qualifiers would each surrender €3m of their international allocation to lift the commonly shared amount from €9m to €12m. Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille and Lyon signalled willingness; Lille and Brest opposed. No resolution has been reached.
How the domestic pool is split
Within the €112.5m, the LFP applies a five-criterion model that has been broadly stable for years:
| Criterion | Basis | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Part fixe | flat base payment to every club | solidarity |
| Licence club | second base payment tied to licensing standards | solidarity |
| Current-season ranking | final 2026/27 table | performance |
| Five-season ranking | league positions across five prior seasons | performance |
| Notoriété | number of televised matches, weighted to premium slots, over five years | market |
Under the current projection, the club ranking first across the combined criteria receives approximately €11.7m, and the club ranking last approximately €3.6m — domestic pool only.
The new law: a 1:3 cap that the current key would breach
On 21 July 2026 the French Senate gave final approval, following the National Assembly the previous day, to the law on the organisation, management and financing of professional sport. The 45-article text emerged from the Senate inquiry led by Laurent Lafon and Michel Savin, and it is the legislature’s answer to a decade of financial deterioration in French football.
For distribution modelling, one provision matters: the spread between the best-paid and worst-paid club in a competition is capped at a ratio of 1:3. Historically the Ligue 1 spread has run at 1:5 or wider.
Run the current projection through that constraint:
€11.7m ÷ €3.6m = 3.25
The draft key breaches the statutory ceiling. Two qualifications apply.
First, the cap covers domestic rights only. The €71.6m international pool reserved for clubs with a UEFA coefficient is untouched. The actual inequality between PSG and a promoted club is barely addressed by the legislation — a point worth holding onto, because the headline coverage has largely missed it.
Second, the implementing decrees are outstanding. Sports minister Marina Ferrari has committed to publishing the décrets d’application promptly, but no date is public. Whether the cap binds the 2026/27 settlement or first applies in 2027/28 is genuinely open.
If it does bind, the mechanical consequence is predictable: base payments rise, and the notoriété component — the criterion that most rewards incumbent media presence — loses weight. That would be the most significant change to the French distribution key since the CVC transaction.
The subscriber problem
Everything above rests on one variable. LFP Media’s original business plan assumed 1.5 million subscribers and €320m in revenue for 2026/27. Ligue 1+ is currently tracking around one million, with a recent downward drift. The €170.1m projection sits at roughly 53% of plan.
There is one upside driver. From 2026/27 the platform carries all nine matches per round, having previously ceded one fixture to a third party. Market observers expect that to pull in a further 200,000 to 300,000 subscribers mechanically. Even so, the gap to plan remains wide.
There is also a one-time support. A reserve fund of €63.5m has been factored into the projection. Without it the published figures would be materially lower — and a reserve fund can only be spent once.
Nicolas de Tavernost, the departing LFP Media chief executive, has said he expects the rights to return to market in due course. Names circulating include Disney, Paramount and Apple TV+. Nothing is committed.
The Premier League comparison
For a Football-Finance readership, the useful benchmark is England — not because the gap is surprising, but because of what the shape of the two distributions reveals.
The Premier League distributed more than £3bn to its 20 clubs in 2025/26, the first year of a new four-year domestic cycle. According to estimates compiled by The Athletic, champions Arsenal took approximately £198.7m and bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers approximately £117.7m.
| Metric | Ligue 1 2026/27 | Premier League 2025/26 |
|---|---|---|
| Total distributed to top-flight clubs | €184.1m | over £3bn (≈ €3.45bn) |
| Average per club | ≈ €10.2m | ≈ £150m (≈ €172m) |
| Top club | ≈ €11.7m (domestic) | £198.7m (≈ €228m) |
| Bottom club | ≈ €3.6m (domestic) | £117.7m (≈ €135m) |
| Top-to-bottom ratio | 3.25 : 1 | 1.69 : 1 |
Euro conversions are indicative at approximately £1 = €1.15 and will move with the rate.
Two observations follow.
On scale: Arsenal alone earned more from central distributions than the entire net Ligue 1 pool. Wolves — relegated, bottom of the table — earned roughly three-quarters of what all 18 French top-flight clubs will share.
On shape: France is legislating a 1:3 cap it does not currently meet. The Premier League, without any statutory constraint, distributes at 1.69:1. The English model achieves flatter distribution not through regulation but through design: a large equal share, from both domestic and international rights, with merit and facility fees layered on top. The French model front-loads market-based criteria and then rations what is left.
That is the transferable lesson. The debate in France is framed as a revenue problem — too few subscribers, no external buyer, an unfavourable private equity deal. It is also an architecture problem. A league that reserves its entire international pool for seven or eight clubs has made a structural choice, independent of how much money comes in the door.
What this means for clubs
The practical consequence for French clubs is already established: player trading is the revenue pillar, not media rights. Recruitment, development and well-timed sales determine budget capacity. Clubs without a functioning sales pipeline face a structural squeeze that broadcast income will not relieve.
For the promoted sides, Troyes and Le Mans, the arithmetic is stark. Promotion to Ligue 1 delivers as little as €3.6m in domestic media revenue — not remotely enough to fund a top-flight squad.
What we are watching
- Implementing decrees for the 21 July 2026 law, and whether the 1:3 cap applies to the 2026/27 settlement
- A resolution in the Ligue 1 college on international rights redistribution
- Ligue 1+ subscriber trajectory after the 23 August 2026 season opener, particularly whether the ninth match delivers the projected uplift
- Any return of the domestic rights to open tender
- The final settlement — everything published so far is a projection
Methodology and sourcing
Verified (consistently reported across multiple outlets; primary source L’Équipe, based on the LFP distribution guide circulated in late April 2026):
- Gross revenue €412.2m
- Operating costs €121.4m; CVC share €65.5m
- Net distribution €225.3m, comprising Ligue 1 €184.1m, Ligue 2 €29.2m, relegation support €12.0m
- Split of €112.5m (all clubs) and €71.6m (UEFA coefficient holders)
- Domestic range €11.7m to €3.6m
- Ligue 1+ €170.1m, France Télévisions €1.0m, international €137.6m
- Reserve fund €63.5m
- Final adoption of the professional sport law on 21 July 2026, including the 1:3 cap on domestic distribution
- Premier League 2025/26: over £3bn distributed; Arsenal £198.7m, Wolves £117.7m (The Athletic estimates)
Derived by Football-Finance (not published as such by the LFP):
- “Other revenue” of €103.5m as a residual (€412.2m − €170.1m − €1.0m − €137.6m)
- The 54.7% pass-through rate
- The 3.25 spread ratio and the finding that it breaches the statutory cap
- Ligue 1 average of €10.2m per club
- Premier League top-to-bottom ratio of 1.69:1 and per-club average
- All euro conversions of sterling figures
Unresolved or contradictory in the source reporting — deliberately not presented as fact:
- Two figures circulate for the international pool: €71.6m (net, within the €184.1m) and €131.1m (apparently pre-deduction). We use €71.6m because only that figure reconciles to the €184.1m total.
- The amount shared across all 18 clubs from international rights is reported variously as €6.5m and €9m.
- The percentage weighting of the five distribution criteria for 2026/27 is not public.
- The club-by-club allocation of the €71.6m pool has not been published.
- Premier League 2025/26 club figures are third-party estimates; official confirmation follows the season.
Sources: L’Équipe (primary reporting on the distribution guide), Morning Foot, Le Petit Lillois, Le Phocéen, Lensois.com, SportBusiness, franceinfo, Décideurs du Sport, Allez Paillade, The Athletic via Yahoo Sports, BBC Sport, Premier League.
As of: 13 August 2026. All Ligue 1 figures are LFP projections and expressly provisional.
FAQ
How much TV money will Ligue 1 clubs receive in 2026/27? The 18 top-flight clubs will share €184.1m net. Of that, €112.5m goes to all clubs and €71.6m only to clubs holding a UEFA coefficient. From the domestic pool, the top-ranked club receives approximately €11.7m and the bottom club approximately €3.6m.
Why have Ligue 1 broadcast revenues collapsed? Following the Mediapro collapse in 2020, DAZN’s withdrawal in 2025 and beIN Sports’ exit at the end of 2025, the LFP could not secure an external domestic rights buyer and launched its own platform, Ligue 1+. At its peak the league distributed around €500m.
Who broadcasts Ligue 1 in 2026/27? Ligue 1+, the LFP’s own platform, carries all nine matches of every round. It is available as a direct OTT subscription and as an add-on through French telecoms operators.
What is the CVC stake in Ligue 1 media revenue? CVC Capital Partners invested around €1.5bn in LFP Media in 2022 in return for 13.04% of adjusted revenues in perpetuity. For 2026/27 that amounts to €65.5m, deducted before any club distribution.
What does the French 1:3 distribution cap mean? The professional sport law finally adopted on 21 July 2026 limits the ratio between the best-paid and worst-paid club to a maximum of 3:1 for domestic media rights. International rights are excluded. Implementing decrees were outstanding at the time of writing, so the first season of application is not yet confirmed.
How does Ligue 1 compare with the Premier League? The Premier League distributed over £3bn to 20 clubs in 2025/26, with Arsenal on approximately £198.7m and bottom club Wolves on approximately £117.7m. Arsenal alone earned more than the entire net Ligue 1 pool of €184.1m. England also distributes far more evenly, at roughly 1.69:1 top to bottom versus 3.25:1 in France.
