Ligue 1 and even Paris Saint-Germain, to an extent, have ignored the United States market. Meanwhile, other top European leagues have embraced it with their recent television deals.
The Premier League is with NBC, La Liga, and the Bundesliga are on ESPN’s platforms, and Serie A is with Paramout+. As for PSG and Ligue 1, they remain on beIN Sports, a challenging channel to find if you’re not a French football fan.
As a result, if the league wants to grow, they have to get a better television contract, and Ligue 1 understands this. LFP Chief Executive Ben Morel spoke with World Soccer Talk and indicated the league is looking seriously at how it can improve its engagement in the US market with its upcoming deal.
“Ligue 1 wants to connect with fans in a very different way than before,” Morel said. “We believe we are well primed to be successful there [in the USA]. We need to improve our grassroots [efforts, upgrade] digitally. We have US players playing in our league we can market. It’s about how we are going to better connect with our fan base and potential fans.”
The current rights package with beIN Sports expires at the end of this season, in June 2024. These next few months will be interesting to follow to see what potential media companies express interest in securing the rights for Ligue 1.
