The LFP hoping to achieve €1bn a year in French football TV rights revenue in next cycle

L’Équipe report that the LFP – the professional body overseeing French professional football – is hoping to achieve €1bn a year in TV rights revenue for the 2024 to 2028 cycle.

The business plan created by the league’s commercial vehicle and submitted to shareholder CVC is budgeting for €863.7m a year in domestic TV rights revenue and then an additional €200m in international TV rights revenue.

This business plan documentation, which was presented to the Court of Commerce in Paris, has been viewed by the newspaper, which confirm that the LFP intend to achieve a very sharp increase in TV rights revenue over the course of the next two cycles.

As it stands, French football TV rights on an annual basis earn the league €662.6m a year in domestic deals and €81.6m a year in international deals, plus €37.1m in partnerships and €10m in digital revenues – a total of €791.3m.

The latest TV rights tender will begin on 12th September and it will either be for an additional 4 year cycle or for a 5-year cycle. For the next cycle, the LFP are targeting the following revenues: €863.7m in domestic TV rights revenue, €200m in international TV rights revenue, €52.4m in partnerships and €35m in digital revenue, which would lead to a grand total of €1.151bn a year in revenue, which would be close to a 50% increase on the current package.

From the cycle beginning in either 2028 or 2029 (the one after the cycle that will be tendered for in September), the LFP’s business plan believes it will achieve €1.068bn a year in domestic revenue, €350m in international partnerships, €77.1m in partnerships and €110m in digital – a total of €1.065bn a year. For the following cycle beginning in 2031 or 2032, the LFP is seeking €1.8bn in revenues.

These targets appear to be very ambitious as Lionel Messi is leaving Ligue 1 and Kylian Mbappé appears set to leave it imminently also.

As a reminder, clubs only receive 87% of the TV rights revenues that are received in France, with the other 13% going to private equity company CVC, who invested €1.5bn in French football in return for this future percentage of TV rights.

The next tender in September is seen as a first step towards putting the LFP towards a jackpot. “For this one, we are sticking to the business plan drawn up alongside CVC, seeking global TV revenues (national and international) of around €1bn. We are aiming for one billion euros, even if the macro-economic and financial context is delicate. It may be a little optimistic, but we have significant room for improvement on the international stage. In France, it’s a little more complicated, especially when the major player, Canal +, does not want to participate. But we work, we see people,” said LFP President Vincent Labrune to L’Équipe recently.

GFFN | James Thorpe