How to Watch Ligue 1 2025-26 in France

Ligue 1 — the French top flight, home of Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille, Monaco, Lyon and Lille — is watched at home in France in a way that changed materially for 2025-26, and the change is exactly the kind that trips up older guides. For a couple of seasons the most common answer to "where do I watch Ligue 1 in France" was DAZN, which held the bulk of the domestic rights. That arrangement ended. DAZN's deal as the Ligue 1 rights-holder was terminated after the 2024-25 season, and rather than re-tender to another broadcaster, the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) launched its own channel, Ligue 1+, as the home of the league from 2025-26. So the verified current picture is a co-exclusive split, and it is not the one most guides describe. Ligue 1+ — the LFP's own channel — carries eight of the nine matches each round, and is distributed to viewers through several routes including DAZN, Amazon Prime Video, Molotov and the major French internet service providers (Orange, Free, SFR and Bouygues). beIN Sports holds the ninth match of each round, the Saturday 5 p.m. fixture, exclusively. There is no free-to-air route to live Ligue 1 in France. The crucial correction: DAZN still appears, but as a distributor of Ligue 1+, not as the rights-holder it used to be. The 2025-26 Ligue 1 season runs from August 2025 to May 2026.

Ligue 1+ is the league's own channel, created and operated by the LFP, and it is the home of the great majority of Ligue 1 football from 2025-26 onwards. Each round of fixtures is split nine ways across the matches, and Ligue 1+ carries eight of those nine — every match except the single Saturday 5 p.m. pick that goes to beIN Sports. For a French fan, this makes Ligue 1+ the channel that carries almost the whole league: all the PSG, Marseille, Monaco and Lyon matches outside that one weekly beIN slot, plus the full breadth of the round. The distinctive thing about Ligue 1+ is how you get it. Rather than being sold only through one platform, it is distributed across several: you can subscribe through DAZN, through Amazon Prime Video (as an add-on channel), through Molotov, and through the major French ISPs — Orange, Free, SFR and Bouygues — within their TV offerings. That means a French household can usually reach Ligue 1+ through whichever provider it already uses, rather than being forced onto a single new app. Pricing sits at around €19.99 per month via the DAZN distribution route, with the exact figure varying by which distributor you take it through and what bundle you choose — check the current price at sign-up with your chosen distributor. For almost all of the round, Ligue 1+ is the route to price up.

beIN Sports holds the other piece of the co-exclusive split: one match per round, the Saturday 5 p.m. fixture, exclusively. This is the part of the deal that means no single subscription shows every Ligue 1 match in France — Ligue 1+ has eight of nine, beIN has the ninth, and they do not overlap. A fan who wants to watch literally every match, including that Saturday-teatime pick, needs both Ligue 1+ (via one of its distributors) and beIN Sports. beIN Sports has been a fixture of French football broadcasting for over a decade and carries a wide slate of other football and sport alongside its Ligue 1 match. For many French fans the calculation is whether the single weekly beIN match is worth a second subscription on top of Ligue 1+ — for a PSG or Marseille fan it depends on how often their club lands in that Saturday 5 p.m. slot. A combined Ligue 1+ and beIN arrangement runs at around €29.99 per month depending on how the two are bundled; check current pricing at sign-up. For complete coverage of every match, beIN is the necessary second piece.

No — not live. There is no free-to-air route to live Ligue 1 matches in France for 2025-26. The league's own channel, Ligue 1+, is a paid product (however you take it — via DAZN, Amazon Prime Video, Molotov or an ISP), and beIN Sports' Saturday match is also paid. Unlike some leagues that keep a highlights or one-match-a-week free window, live Ligue 1 in its home market sits entirely behind paid routes. What is free: highlights, goals and clips on Ligue 1's and the clubs' official YouTube and social channels, plus the free-to-air highlights and magazine coverage that French TV carries around the matches. The big fixtures generate extensive free highlight content. But for live matches, a Ligue 1+ subscription (through any of its distributors) is required, with beIN Sports on top if you want the ninth match too. The honest summary for a French fan: Ligue 1+ for eight of nine matches a round, beIN Sports for the ninth, no free live route. Pick Ligue 1+ through whichever distributor suits you, and add beIN only if the Saturday 5 p.m. match matters to you. Check current pricing at sign-up for each.

Ligue 1 is played on French time (Central European Time), so for a fan in France the kick-off times are simply the local schedule — no offset to work out. The round is spread across the weekend and into Sunday evening: the beIN Sports match anchors Saturday at 5 p.m., with the rest of the slate on Ligue 1+ across Saturday evening, Sunday afternoon and the Sunday-night headline fixture, plus a Friday-night opener. The matches that draw the biggest French audiences are PSG's fixtures — particularly Le Classique against Marseille — along with the other big-club meetings involving Monaco, Lyon and Lille. Almost all of these sit on Ligue 1+; only the one that falls into the Saturday 5 p.m. slot in a given week goes to beIN. Check Matchcast for the exact French kick-off time of every Ligue 1 fixture, with the broadcaster listing on each match page so you can see whether a given match is on Ligue 1+ or on beIN Sports.