Amazon to take over French Ligue 1 broadcasting rights; will it impact viewers in India?

Amazon has got the broadcasting rights for 80% of available matches for an upfront fee of €250 million per season. Amazon Prime members across Europe will be paying €12.99 a month for the Le Pass Ligue 1 channel, which will broadcast over 300 matches per month. The remaining 20% are with their rivals Canal+ who to their disappointment are paying €332 million. Amazon recently won the rights to show Champions League matches in Italy, already shows live football in Germany, and has rights for some English Premier League matches. French legend and World Cup winner Thierry Henry will be on the expert panel for the coverage along with Ludovic Giuly, Vitorino Hilton, and Pascal Dupraz. Currently, in India, there is no official broadcast for the Ligue 1 on TV or live streaming either as there is no mention of it on their official website, owing to no broadcast partner in the country. This could however change as India is one of Amazon's biggest markets for Prime Video. "Beginning August 6, Prime Video Ligue 1 will exclusively broadcast eight matches per week of all match-rounds of Ligue 1 Uber Eats per season for three years, including the 10 top pick matches of each season," Amazon said in a statement. "We think it is a fair price. It will make watching soccer accessible both in terms of costs and usage," Alex Green, Managing Director of Prime Video Sport Europe, told Reuters. All of this comes after Ligue 1's record €780 million contract with Mediapro broke down after payment issues, as they failed to make the payments on time. Ligue 1 action has kicked off On August 7, the French league started with Monaco taking on Nantes which ended in a 1-1 draw owing to goals from Gelson Martins in minute 14 and Jean-Charles Castelletto in the 42nd minute. Lyon vs Brest also ended in a 1-1 draw, thanks to an Islam Slimani equaliser in the 62nd minute after Irvin Cardona had given Brest the lead in the 43rd minute. Elsewhere, newly promoted Troyes took on PSG and gave them a run for their money after taking the lead in the ninth minute courtesy of a goal from Oualid El Hajjam but sadly could not hold onto that lead as new signing Achraf Hakimi scored in the 19th minute to equalise and two minutes later, Argentine striker Mauro Icardi scored to put the Parisians ahead 1-2. Troyes did not sit back and let PSG attack but instead kept on attacking, however, it was just not meant to be as PSG held on to their slender lead to win their opening game of the Ligue 1. (Image Credits: @French_Ligue1 - Twitter/ Shutterstock)

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Amazon to take over French Ligue 1 broadcasting rights; will it impact viewers in India?

Amazon has taken over the French Ligue 1 broadcasting rights for 80% of their matches after having shelled out a reported €250 million per season.

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