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The introduction of over-the-top (OTT) broadcasting platforms by European soccer’s football elite has been on the rise as part of a growing trend of sports properties recognizing the potential of acting as their own media platform.
With streamers such as Amazon Prime Video and now Netflix, with its $5 billion WWE Raw deal, getting into the live sports broadcasting arena, sports organizations have been looking at their own houses to figure out how they get in on the game without disrupting the lucrative media deals they and their leagues already have in place.
Paul McGee, head of video planning for media agency Goodstuff, explained that club OTT platforms offer value to media buyers who can reach highly dedicated audiences other media cannot.
“Traditionally, being in and around sports content would involve buying expensive and inflexible TV spots in the content. Now they can buy into a massive range of content, and deliver a high-quality audience at scale, but not having to have huge budget levels,” added McGee.
Taking the OTT Leap
At the start of the year, Dutch champions Feyenoord became the latest team to introduce its own fan-focused OTT platform, partnering with Endeavor Streaming, which is quickly becoming a leading player in the field, on an offering set to premiere in the second half of the 2023-2024 season.
We have created a place where our fans can see everything all the time, at one place, on demand.
Ruud van der Knaap, chief commercial officer, Feyenoord
The proposition will bring the club enhanced data capture and analytics tooling, while also offering Feyenoord’s commercial team access to deeper consumer insight metrics to maximize audience growth and build a marketplace strategy.
And while initially, the club says Feyenoord One won’t become an advertising and sponsorship tool, it does offer current brand partners and marketers even more exposure than they were previously receiving.
While it won’t show live matches from the senior squad as those are tied up with other broadcasting deals, the club will offer some live matches through its Academy as well as original documentaries and match day content including extended highlights, player interviews, press conferences and full match replays. The club has hired a team of around 15 content creators who will film and document everything going on around Feyenoord FC to potentially run on the platform, called Feyenoord One.
“We have created a place where our fans can see everything all the time, at one place, on demand. This is a great solution to have a place for all the quality content we have to bring to our friends and internally,” Feyenoord chief commercial officer Ruud van der Knaap told Adweek.
Launched with a subscription model and free from advertising, van der Knaap outlined the potential audience reach: The club’s 33,000 season ticket holders have free access for the rest of the season, plus a supporter base of 60,000 fans who will receive a discount of half price.
International audiences and fans of players such as Mexican striker Santiago Giménez, who has 5 million social media followers, will also be able to subscribe, offering a revenue stream for sports organizations to exploit the use of major social media platforms where previously there was little commercial benefit beyond fan engagement.
The route to success for any club is to find a balance between scale, revenue and strategy when it comes to streaming to grow the audience, engage super fans, acts as a sponsorship platform and to offer a data-capture vehicle that can help sell more tickets and merchandise, said James Lamon, evp of content and operations at FootballCo Media.
The more you can build it out and the more knowledge you have about your fan base, that’s where the marketers are starting to get smart.
Phil Lynch, CEO of D2C products and experiences, Manchester United
“OTTs are not significant revenue drivers or hot ticket items for brand partners,” he added. “For every club looking to diversify revenues, the opportunity to solve this challenge and deliver value is seductive.”
The opportunity for clubs and marketers
Other clubs to team with Endeavor Streaming to launch their OTT propositions in the last year have included Spanish giants Real Madrid as well as the National Women’s Soccer League. Beyond soccer, the Rugby League, New Zealand Rugby, the European League of Football Partners, WWE, TNA Wrestling and The Super Motocross League are all recent sign-ups as well.
Pete Bellamy, chief commercial officer at Endeavor Streaming, believes that things are only beginning for most sporting properties, which learned valuable lessons during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and the physical restrictions placed upon fans. He is already seeing an evolution in the OTT subscriptions on offer by its partners within six to nine months of launch.
Within that evolution is the understanding of measurement and monitoring the behaviors of fans through platform analytics to guide the design of a more engaging viewing experience.
Sports have long been a go-to area for brands of all sizes around the world, and this new era of football-owned streaming will doubtless offer both sides new opportunities.
Phil Lynch, CEO of D2C products and experiences at Manchester United, cited the importance of its 22-year-old 24/7 linear OTT platform MUTV but warned that it had to be integrated as part of the wider fan outreach experience across other parts of the club’s media empire, including its app.
As younger people are less likely to watch streaming platforms than older fans, Manchester United has realized that it must cater to all demographics wherever they choose to engage with the club.
The club is the most watched team in the English Premier League, claiming a combined 2 billion viewing hours last season across 200 territories. The club has more social media followers that the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL combined, with more than 260 million followers producing 4.5 billion social media interactions over the last two seasons alone.
Marketers are now looking at the data insights around soccer club fan bases to be able to understand and leverage their partnerships to bring them closer to brands.
“The more you can build it out and the more knowledge you have about your fan base, that’s where the marketers are starting to get smart and they’re starting to now want to show return on their investment,” said Lynch. “Rather than just saying, ‘I’ve been in 750 million homes’ on a linear television basis, they now ask ‘How can we activate?’ to get closer to the consumer.”
And for Manchester United especially, this strategy is working, having sealed 28 major sponsors for the current season and agreeing to its largest kit deal in the history of the Premier League with Adidas through a 10-year extension valued at a minimum of 1.06 billion euros ($1.15 billion).
According to its most recent financial results in November, Manchester United’s 2023 sponsorship revenue will reach £189.5 million ($240 million), its highest in five years.
