FRENCH TWIST
Ligue 1 aims to make U.S. media rights more attractive by playing “meaningful” games in the States.
FRENCH SOCCER LEAGUE LIGUE 1 is in the market for a new U.S. rights package and has been telling potential suitors that it will play “meaningful” games on U.S. soil.
As a way to make its media rights package more attractive to U.S. media companies, the league plans to have its teams compete for trophies — akin to the French Cup or the French League Cup — in U.S. stadiums before U.S. crowds.
“We are going to be working with our future broadcast partner very closely in terms of bringing meaningful games to the U.S.,” said Ben Morel, CEO of LFP Media, which is the company that controls all commercial activities for the French league.
Morel joined LFP Media six months ago after a five-year stint as CEO of Six Nations Rugby and a two-decade career with the NBA.
“I’ve had a lot of history in my previous jobs of doing a lot of international games, and I know that what is important is the meaningfulness of them,” he said. “They can’t just be exhibition games. They have to be games that matter. We want to do this as a long-term play, not just as one-off, nice little exhibitions.”
These moves come as the French league has made moves to grow its business considerably. At the end of last year, the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners invested nearly $1.7 billion to fund the league’s international expansion.
The idea of growing its business in the United States comes as more influential Americans take ownership stakes in French soccer clubs, including: Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, which owns Toulouse; Frank McCourt, who owns Marseille; John Textor, who owns Lyon; and Todd Boehly’s Clearlake Capital Group, which owns Strasbourg.
LFP Media hired Octagon to handle its U.S. media rights negotiations and rEvolution to run marketing in the country.
The league already started the process of working out new media contracts domestically. Amazon Prime Video and French broadcaster Canal+ share rights in deals that end after this season.
BeIN Sports holds the league’s U.S. rights in a deal that ends after this season. BeIN has had problems getting U.S. distribution for its sports channel. As of August, it was in fewer than 9.5 million homes, a far cry from ESPN’s distribution figure of 71 million homes. BeIN pays around $76 million per year for the league’s media rights outside of France. League officials have said that they want to see a significant increase in that revenue.
European soccer has found success in the U.S. market for the past decade or more, creating an early weekend morning window for sports fans that rarely was utilized before. U.S. media companies have identified international soccer as one of the top sports to grow streaming services, from the Premier League’s deal with Peacock, to Serie A’s pact with Paramount+ to Bundesliga’s and La Liga’s contracts with ESPN+.
The U.S. market for sports rights, though, has slowed considerably, as traditional media companies have dealt with cord cutters and digital media companies are experiencing slower growth.
Big sports leagues like the NFL have seen massive media rights increases. Similarly, the NBA is expected to see a significant increase when it takes its rights to the market next year. But mid-sized leagues and conferences have found that the sports rights marketplace has become tighter than ever. The Pac-12, for example, was unable to find a traditional TV deal. And Major League Soccer worked out a deal with Apple when TV networks did not offer as much as the league originally wanted.
That’s why the French league’s pitch to U.S. media companies appears to be much more creative than traditional European leagues that sell their rights into this market. “We would like to have those precise conversations with our future broadcaster to see what makes the most difference to them,” Morel said.
Part of the French league’s popularity stems from how ingrained it is in popular culture. Morel compared Ligue 1 to the NBA in that respect and suggested that having players push values of diversity and social engagement will be a crucial selling point for the league.
“That will resonate particularly well in the U.S.,” Morel said. “That’s a positioning where we are not only relevant but can be very effective.”
The league will lean on its biggest stars, like Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappé (who has more than 109 million Instagram followers), to help sell that message to U.S. audiences.
“They need to be part of our promotion actively and not just in passing,” Morel said. “We want to basically showcase them in a very different way, giving new access and getting all the fans around the world to know their stories.”
The league will take responsibility for production, and Morel talked about the need to find innovative ways to present the games, teams and players. That could include more access, Morel said, pointing to a documentary that is being produced around the league’s trading deadline.
“Our social diversity and multiculturalism defines French football and makes it very genuine and authentic, not a marketing stunt,” Morel said. “We might not be the biggest league, but we want to be the coolest and the most enshrined in today’s youth culture.”