Disney and Skydance weigh bids for French Ligue 1 TV rights

French football's TV rights are for sale again, and two American entertainment companies are looking at them. Walt Disney Co. and Skydance Corp. are both considering bids to win French football rights for the first time, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the situation. The French Professional Football League opened a tender last week for its domestic audiovisual rights. It covers 2027 to 2032, and bids are due Dec. 3.

Bloomberg described the auction as Ligue 1's attempt to haul itself back after years of collapsing revenue. That sets the stakes. The league needs to learn what its matches are worth to buyers who have never held them.

Sports Business Journal, relaying the Bloomberg report, said the league has set a minimum reserve price for the auction but hasn't said what it is.

Canal+ may also bid, according to people familiar with the situation cited by Bloomberg.

A revenue line that fell to a fraction

The steep fall in revenue is the context for everything else. Broadcast revenue for the league and its clubs was once about €1 billion ($1.1 billion) a year. It is now about €180 million, or roughly $200 million, according to Investing.com's summary of the Bloomberg report, and Sports Business Journal gives the same drop in dollars. The decline came after the league launched its own streaming service.

The current figure is less than a fifth of the old one, and that changes what a good result looks like on Dec. 3. Measured against today's figure, a bid would not have to restore the old number to count as progress for the clubs. One detail stands out. The streaming service the league launched as revenue fell is now one of the two things the tender is selling.

Two ways to buy the same matches

The most interesting detail is how the rights are packaged. Bidders can either acquire the full broadcast rights or take exclusive distribution of the league's existing streaming service. Those are two different businesses.

In a separate piece the same day, Sports Business Journal described the league as looking to "stress test" the media rights market with a complete domestic package. Offering two routes is how that test works in practice: the same matches go on sale in two forms, and each buyer's choice shows which one it prefers.

Ligue 1's tender asks a blunt question: would a media company rather own the matches, or hold exclusive distribution of a streaming service the league already runs? The bids that land on Dec. 3 will start to answer it, and the split between the two routes could say as much about the market as the headline price does.

For a buyer that already has a large French subscriber base and an app to sell through, the distribution route could be the lighter commitment, since the league's service already exists. A company that wants to control the product, from scheduling to presentation, would lean toward full rights. Which way Disney and Skydance lean, if they bid at all, will show how each one values controlling the matches.

Disney's growing French sports slate

Investing.com, in an editor-reviewed summary of the Bloomberg story, adds detail on Disney's position in France. Disney has been building up its sports rights in France for Disney+. It shows all 380 live matches of Spain's La Liga in France through a partnership with DAZN. It also holds rights to the UEFA Women's Champions League through 2029-30.

Ligue 1 would fill a gap in that lineup. Disney+ already carries a foreign league and a European women's competition in France, but not the country's own top men's league. The La Liga arrangement also suggests Disney is used to bringing football to French viewers through a partner, so the distribution route could look familiar.

Laughing Place, a Disney-focused outlet, notes that Disney has already been working to improve its standing in France. The limit is just as clear. The tender covers only domestic rights, so the league will not appear on ESPN in the U.S. That suggests the bid depends on how much Disney wants to grow Disney+ in France.

The outlet's broader read is that live sports are still a major profit center and that streaming growth is mainly focused on international markets. It sees those two trends as the likely reason both Disney and Skydance are looking. A France-only package fits that reading neatly, because all of its value would be earned outside the U.S.

Skydance, Canal+ and the Dec. 3 deadline

Skydance is the less predictable bidder. It recently acquired Warner Bros. Discovery, and Laughing Place notes there are still many questions about how the new company will move forward. A bid for French football could offer some insight into what the company sees as important, if Skydance decides to go after the rights.

One public signal exists. In a Sports Business Journal story published Nov. 10, Skydance said it would be a "significant player" in sports even with debt from the WBD purchase. A Ligue 1 bid would attach a price to that statement. The route it chose would show whether Skydance wants to own sports programming or simply carry it.

One caution: considering a bid is not placing one, and all of this comes from people familiar with the process rather than the companies themselves. The next real data point is Dec. 3. For league commercial teams and distribution executives watching from other markets, the useful number won't be the winning price alone. It will be whether serious money goes to owning the matches or to carrying the service, and whether any bid clears the reserve the league has set.