Canal+ threatens Ligue 1+ legal action
August 22, 2025
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
With Ligue 1+ already topping 600k subs in its first week, French pay-TV group Canal+ has threatened the commercial arm of French Professional Football League, LFP Media, with legal action unless it is authorised to distribute the Ligue 1+ service, according to French sports daily L’Équipe.
Canal+ group president, Maxime Saada wrote to LFP Media head Nicolas de Tavernost (the former M6 CEO) on August 20th asking him to release the streams allowing the distribution of the channel by 3pm on August 22nd or face legal action for “unfair discrimination”.
“We formally demand that you, once again, make available to Canal+ the streams enabling the distribution of Ligue 1+ service,” said Saada. “Failing this, we will have no choice but to take this matter to court.”
Canal+ states in its letter, whose ultimatum has already been rejected by LFP Media, that it had entered into a distribution agreement with LFP Media before de Tavernost made the implementation of this agreement contingent on Canal+ dropping the legal proceedings it initiated against the League in 2021.
Canal+ is effectively seeking more than €600 million in compensation for the claimed damage following the failure of the Mediapro broadcast.
Subsequently, the LFP sold Mediapro’s eight matchday Ligue 1 matches to Amazon Prime for €250 million, while maintaining its contract with Canal+ for two matches for €332 million.
This version is disputed by LFP Media, which claims that no formal contract was signed between the two parties, and the League is still demanding an end to the legal proceedings initiated by Canal+.
After the split in early May between the LFP and streaming platform DAZN, the main broadcaster of Ligue 1 since the start of the 2024-2025 season, LFP opted to create its own channel. It has since concluded distribution agreements in France with most telecom operators and streaming platforms such as DAZN, Molotov, Prime Video, Orange, Bouygues Telecom, Free and SFR.
The service is priced at €14.99 (half of DAZN’s €29.99 subscription last season), with various promotions available for early signs-ups, as well as a discounted offer for subscribers aged under 26.
Earlier in July 2025, Saada confirmed in an interview with L’Équipe that Canal+ would not distribute Ligue 1’s new in-house direct-to-consumer service after turning down a proposed deal.
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