(Bloomberg) — France’s elite professional football league backed a broadcast deal with Len Blavatnik’s streaming group Dazn Group Ltd. and the Qatari sports broadcaster beIN to screen live matches this season, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The board of the Ligue de Football Professionnel, the governing body for professional football in France, voted in favor of the Dazn-beIN deal on Sunday, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t public yet.
Representatives for Dazn and beIN declined to comment. A spokesperson for the league didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The decision to team up with Dazn and beIN comes after months of talks between Ligue 1 and various parties and puts an end for the time being to talk of the league creating its own channel.
The French league originally set an ambitious target of around €1 billion ($1.1 billion) for its domestic and global broadcast rights but has struggled to obtain that figure from conventional broadcast deals, with the main player in the market, Canal , declining to bid.
French radio RMC reported on Sunday that the deal with Dazn and beIN is for a period stretching until 2029 and should bring in about €500 million a year in revenue.
As talks have continued with the start of the season in August approaching, some clubs have become increasingly concerned about their finances. Last week Bloomberg News reported that CVC Capital Partners, a minority shareholder in the French league, was helping to organize a short-term lending facility for teams in particular difficulty.
Broadcast revenues are a key component of budgets for most European teams and most broadcast deals include guaranteed payments early on in the season.
Winning the fraught battle in France is important for Dazn, which has been building its portfolio of premium sports rights in Europe. It’s the current holder of elite football rights in Italy, Span and Germany. It’s in a dispute with the Bundesliga over a renewed offer in Germany.
–With assistance from Gaspard Sebag.
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