Fox Sports Streams First Major Live Sports Event on YouTube
Our Take:
Fox may not have won the bid for the popular English Premiere League (NBC had the honor earlier this week), but it’s wasting no time in promoting its other soccer property, the German soccer league Bundesliga. On Friday it streamed the opening match on Fox Soccer’s YouTube channel, marking the first time that the network has aired a live match from one of its major sports franchises for free on the platform. Though the Bundesliga is very popular in Europe, it needs some promotion to American audiences. Fox is differentiating the production from what it does with the UEFA Champions League, Sports Video Group reports, in order to give the league its own identity. One challenge the network believes it will face: Catering to veteran, knowledgeable fans while at the same time attracting new fans. It’s a fine line.
The Sports Video Group was formed in 2006 to support the professional community that relies on video, audio, and broadband technologies to produce and distribute sports content. Leagues, owners, teams, players, broadcasters, webcasters, and consumer technology providers have joined the SVG to learn from each other, turn vision into reality, implement new innovations, while sharing experiences that will lead to advancements in the sports production/distribution process and the overall consumer sports experience.
