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On August 15, the LFP hoped to launch its Ligue 1+ channel with panache. Canal+ chose that day to send a very clear message. While Rennes – OM, the first paid poster of the League platform, must mark the start of the season in France, Canal+ announced the clear broadcast of the Liverpool – Bournemouth match, the opening match of the Premier League. Officially, Canal+ wants to offer a consumer event with a complete device around its program “The Weekend”, from 8:30 pm. Unofficially, no one is fooled. Timing, the choice of poster, free: everything looks like a well -placed shot against the LFP.
“The 2025/2026 Premier League season starts strong on the channels of the Canal+group”, the statement announced. Not a word on Ligue 1, whose historical diffuser now seems to want to sabotage the recovery. Canal+ was not content to refuse rights. The chain led by Maxime Saada declined the Ligue 1+ distribution offer, even in non-exclusive, despite the 30 million euros in possible commissions if the million subscribers were reached.
Duel of images from August 15
And that’s not all: no advertising space will be sold to the new channel, just like Bein Sports, a long -standing partner. For the LFP, it is a strategy of deliberate asphyxiation. After the failure of negotiations with Dazn and procrastination around a possible call for tenders, the league ended up launching its platform alone. Canal+, which had lived as a humiliation the Amazon Post-Mediappro episode, never digested. Internally, LFP Media accuses the Bolloré group of trying to “kill the Ligue 1+ project”.
Rennes-OM, the first match broadcast by Ligue 1+, will therefore pay when Canal+ will offer Liverpool-Bournemouth free at the same time. Two visions, two models, and a battle of influence. The weekend will continue with Nantes-Psg in clear, on Ligue 1+, Sunday. But the launch already has everything from an showdown. With a subscription rate planned between 14.99 and 19.99 € per month, the League is betting on supporters to support its product, despite an environment that has become hostile. Canal+ and Bein will make no gifts.
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Friday August 15, evening of the launch of Ligue 1+ with Rennes-OM, Canal+ chose to broadcast in clear the opening match of the Premier League season: Liverpool-Bournemouth #EPL pic.twitter.com/XbubcwlGVd
– Sacha Nokovitch (@Sachanoko) August 3, 2025
TV rights: Canal+ Torpille The launch of the Ligue 1+ channel
The tension is at its height between the LFP and Canal+. The encrypted group has decided to tackle head-on the new Ligue 1+ channel by programming a first League match in clear the same evening as Rennes-OM. A muscular strategy that speaks volumes about the open war between the two camps.
