Want to watch a game? Good luck!
Sports rights have never been so fragmented as every broadcaster, streamer on planet earth wants a piece of the action.
Where does that leave fans?
Fans are forced to stack subscriptions (when they can afford it), play a constant guessing game as to where to watch the next game or ultimately resort to piracy.
Speaking of piracy, according to a recent study, 37% of French fans who watched Ligue 1 this season did so illegally, via pirate streams broadcast via IPTV, encrypted messaging services such as Telegram, social networks, websites... Even more strikingly, 27% of those who illegally watch the French Football Championship have started doing so since this season.
How did we get here?
DAZN is the new rights holders of Ligue 1 in France and they faced a boycott at launch due to the subscription price deemed too high by the fans (39.99€/month; 29.99€ if you go annual). They pay 400M€ a year and need 1.5M subs to break even. Today, they are said to have around 400K subs (end of November estimate). Prices came down (19.99€; 10€ if you are > 26 years old) but this month they paid only half of the amount to Ligue 1 (35M€ instead of 70M€) so the league is now suing them. They are said to have an exit clause they can exercise if they haven’t reached the 1.5M target by December 2025. Meanwhile French clubs face 1.2B€ combined loss.
We’re in a lose-lose scenario here where the maths simply don’t add up for sports stakeholders and fans. A broken model and the new normal outside of a few sports Tier 1 properties?
We discuss that and so much more in the latest episode of The Media Odyssey:
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That’s it for today but before you go:
Enjoy your day and see you on Saturday for the next Weekend Wrap Up edition of Streaming Made Easy!
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