DAZN and Disney+ have acquired the French broadcasting rights for Spanish football league La Liga starting in the 2026-2027 season, replacing BeIN Sports.
The change was officialized on Thursday, August 6, through a press release, ending a 14-year run for BeIN Sports on the competition. For the first time in France, La Liga matches will be available exclusively on online streaming platforms rather than linear television.
Starting August 15, the launch date of the 2026-2027 season, all 380 matches per season will be broadcast simultaneously on both paid streaming services for the next three seasons. The coverage will feature star players including Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal, and will come at no extra cost to subscribers of either platform.
New streaming partnership
La Liga president Javier Tebas said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde on Thursday that the time had come to open a new chapter. He explained that Disney+ and DAZN presented an ambitious vision that combined a broad audience with genuine sports expertise.
DAZN stated in a press release that France joins several other markets where it already broadcasts La Liga, including Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Japan, and Taiwan. The sports streaming service, which also holds rights to the Italian Serie A, promised that all matches will be commented in French with a commentator-consultant duo for all Real Madrid and FC Barcelona games.
Disney France president Helene Etzi told Agence France-Presse that football sits at the crossroads of sport, entertainment, digital media, and popular culture. She noted that La Liga holds a special place for French fans following Spain's World Cup title and features popular French players such as Kylian Mbappe, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni, and Jules Kounde.
Disney+ is adding La Liga to its sports catalog, which already includes the Women's Champions League. All 380 matches per season will be commented in French, with production handled by American sports network ESPN, which has select content available on Disney+.
Shift from linear television
Tebas told Le Monde that the league priority was not whether broadcast took place on linear television or streaming, but that supporters could easily access matches with the best possible experience. He noted that streaming has become a natural way to watch for millions of fans, viewing the move as an opportunity to gain viewers rather than a risk of losing them.
The deal marks the end of an era for BeIN Sports, which made La Liga a central feature of its brand since launching its French channel in 2012, led by commentary duo Omar Da Fonseca and Benjamin Da Silva. The Qatari network stopped broadcasting Italian Serie A in France in 2024 and will also operate without French Ligue 1 matches, after the Ligue de Football Professionnel recovered all Ligue 1 rights for the 2026-2027 season for its Ligue 1 + platform.
Reactions from BeIN Sports
A source at BeIN Sports told AFP that running a television network was about economic logic and customer habits rather than competing like a transfer window, asserting that the channel holds necessary rights at the right price. The network emphasized its remaining catalog of Ligue 2, Coupe de France, German Bundesliga, and Portuguese Liga rights, alongside an exceptional 2026 World Cup shared with M6.
The BeIN Sports source also criticized the new broadcast partners, pointing out that DAZN previously experienced failure after just one season on Ligue 1 in 2024-2025 while calling Disney+ an invisible actor in the French sports market.
