The choice of DAZN that makes Ligue 1 invisible on social networks

The tenth round of Ligue 1 began with two matches on Friday, November 1, but fans of the French soccer championship could not see anything on social networks. The main broadcaster, DAZN, recently stopped sharing goals scored on Ligue 1 fields on its digital platforms, X, TikTok or Instagram. Since last weekend there has been a kind of blackout on social networks of the most spectacular actions in French football.

At the beginning of the season, DAZN decided to share some of them almost live each day. A decision welcomed by many observers, since this presentation of the championship on digital platforms had been expected for a long time. But less than three months after the start of the 2024-2025 Ligue 1 season, the new broadcaster has backtracked.

“After “freemium” [modèle qui propose des contenus gratuits pour attirer des consommateurs vers ceux qui sont payants] Initially to make the brand known to the largest possible audience, the idea now is to promote the service among our subscribers. It’s a classic marketing strategy.”We specify DAZN, which acquired last July the broadcast of eight of the nine matches of each day of Ligue 1, for an amount of 400 million euros per year, until 2029.

The topic had already been debated in 2021

The British platform, which dreams of being the “Netflix of sports”, is thus moving away from a valuable loss-leading product. Especially because with around 500,000 subscribers – according to an estimate of The team Friday – has only reached a third of its breakeven point. At the end of 2025, if DAZN has not yet reached 1.5 million subscribers, the broadcaster or the Professional Football League (LFP) may request the termination of the contract that unites them at the end of the 2025-2026 season. To attract new customers, DAZN has decided to extend its promotion launched in September until the end of 2024, with an increase in its subscription from 29.99 euros to 19.99 euros per month, as well as a one-year commitment.

The new broadcaster’s contrary stance on sharing goals on social media is not in line with the LFP’s recent intentions. The latter wants to modernize the image of Ligue 1 and promote it, especially on digital platforms where there is a young audience, instead of restricting its accessibility in this way. In recent years, the institution directed by Vincent Labrune had often been criticized for its conservatism in the matter and had therefore decided to evolve.

In October 2021, Stéphanois Wahbi Khazri’s splendid goal against Metz, with a lob from 60 meters, relaunched the debate. The LFP had not sold the rights to use images of the championship on social networks to Amazon Prime Video, then the broadcaster. The feat of the Tunisian player went completely unnoticed on X, Tiktok and Instagram. At least in France.

Although Amazon Prime Video was content with an unfortunate diagram to describe the action, the images of the goal were broadcast by numerous accounts based abroad. Geo-blocking, however, prevented French fans from seeing them. The latter had to wait until Monday morning to see the goal with their own eyes. The LFP then justified its desire to protect the rights acquired by broadcasters and fight against piracy.

Canal+’s aggressive strategy

Scalded by these “bad rumors” and finally convinced by the NBA and NFL model, whose stations have been sharing video excerpts for years without seeing a drop in their number of subscribers, the League signed an agreement with DAZN, during the assignment of rights in July, on the exploitation of these sequences on digital platforms.

The recent change of the channel, which arrived on the French market only a few months ago, affects the promotion of Ligue 1. The LFP, contacted, did not want to react to this decision. The French championship, in addition to suffering from the sporting competition of the major European championships, is now relegated on social networks after the numerous images of goals scored in the Champions League and the Premier League. The broadcaster of these two contests, Canal+, does not hesitate to share them widely.

Ligue 1 fans can still watch match highlights posted on the LFP’s YouTube channel… on Monday morning. Or access the goals almost live – one minute after they were scored – on Free Foot, which partnered with DAZN during the assignment of the rights. But for this, fans must download the dedicated application. An additional approach, sometimes paralyzing, that does not allow to stop a growing phenomenon of invisibility of Ligue 1.