Within the GESM office we’ve chatted a lot about soccer and television in the past week. We’ve talked about NBC and the Premier League, Fox and the Bundesliga, and most recently Fox’s decision to broadcast the Bundesliga season-opener in partnership with YouTube. The one universal comment is that soccer consumption is changing right before our eyes. Soccer’s young tech savvy audience is driving digital viewing habits – leading them to drop their cable boxes for Apple TV, Roku and now YouTube.
YouTube’s growing interest in soccer is of particular interest. The video giant already enjoys a thriving soccer community. Both Copa90 and KickTV have over 1 million subscribers and provide compelling soccer news and entertainment content. This weeks live broadcast partnership with FOX Sports may have been a one-off, but it sent a loud signal to the marketplace about the opportunity for live streaming. This signal was magnified even further by the announcement that YouTube had acquired the live Bundesliga rights in New Zealand.
Is it just a matter of time before YouTube acquires the U.S. broadcast rights to a major soccer league? Maybe. There’s certainly growing evidence (based on views of legal and illegal streams) of American’s willingness to watch matches online. At kick-off time for the Bundesliga game last Friday, 4,000 subscribers were glued to the YouTube stream.
Categories: TV Rights, Uncategorized, YouTube