Amazon Prime Video ups Le Pass Ligue 1 price, with less coverage

Amazon Prime Video has boosted the price of its French football offering Le Pass Ligue 1 to €14.99 per month or €99 per season ahead of the 2023-2024 season.

The exclusive Amazon Prime channel for subscribers in France launched in 2021 for a supplementary charge of €12.99 a month, with access of up to eight matches per match-day.

From the 2023-2024 season, Prime Video will broadcast seven out of the nine Ligue 1  matches each day exclusively on the Le Pass Ligue 1 channel.

The price boost means Le Pass Ligue 1 subscribers will be paying more for less matches.

During a weekend, Amazon Prime Video will deliver coverage of matches on Fridays at 9 pm, Saturday at 5 pm and Sunday at 1 pm, 3 pm and 8:45 pm, with some championship days in the middle of the week during the season.

Prime Video will also broadcast via this channel, the Ligue 2 BKT multiplex as well as eight of the 10 matches of each day of Ligue 2 BKT. During a classic weekend, this corresponds to the matches on Saturday at 7 pm.

All of these matches will be available to Prime members who have subscribed to the Le Pass Ligue 1 channel.

In June LFP president Vincent Labrune told sports paper LÉquipe that he aims to reach the goal of €1 billion for the national and international rights to Ligue 1 for the 2024-28 seasons, the bidding for which is due to kick off in the autumn.

Labrune said that reaching such a goal would require a significant uptick in proceeds from the sale of international rights as the domestic rights situation was “complicated” because “the major player, Canal+, does not want to take part”.

Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada said that “nothing surprises” him, including the LFP’s “obsession” with reaching €1 billion, which had led to the league’s disastrous dalliance with Spanish producer and broadcaster Mediapro during the previous rights auction.

The decision to award the bulk of rights to Mediapro cost the league dear when the Spanish company was forced to return them. The rights were subsequently sold at a knock-down price to Amazon, leading to a legal dispute with Canal+, which had paid much more for a smaller tranche of second-tier rights.