FIFA+ provides sports biopics and documentaries as well as match action and has been expanding globally across connected TV apps and FAST channels. Romy Gai, FIFA’s Chief Business Officer, said: “Sky Media’s expertise and leading capabilities in advertising sales will maximise the commercial success of FIFA+ content, enabling us to create new commercial opportunities.”

Brett Aumuller, Managing Director of Sky Media added: “It’s great to be collaborating with FIFA as they move into the connected TV and FAST channels space. We already provide a wide-ranging football offering to advertisers, and adding FIFA+ will make it an even simpler and more compelling proposition for brands.”

FIFA+ has been well received by consumers in its first year. During the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, FIFA+ generated 190 million views on match recaps.

Editor’s comment:

Advertisers welcome premium streaming services as a way to reach audiences, but also value simplicity when it comes to planning and buying audiences. This deal is a classic example of how an established sales house gives them a direct route into a new audience opportunity. There are many entities ready to represent streamers selling ads. Existing broadcast/Pay TV groups are well-placed to perform that role, as Sky Media has demonstrated here.

Romy Gai, FIFA’s Chief Business Officer, says: “Since its launch in April, FIFA+ has quickly established itself as the go-to platform for fans, as well as the digital home of FIFA events, including those that will be supported by Globant over the coming years. Through its multi-faceted support, Globant will play a vital role in accelerating the development of FIFA+ as a groundbreaking digital hub that inspires and engages football enthusiasts across the globe.”

Martin Migoya, Co-Founder and CEO of Globant, comments: “We are proud to start working with FIFA to accompany them in their digital transformation process and continue propelling our goal of reinventing industries. This multi-year partnership transcends any specific competition and supports this sport in all of its expressions – women, men, esports and youth. We believe that unlimited voices bring unlimited power, and diversity is a pivotal factor for innovation.”

FIFA+ launched earlier this year with original content in the form of documentaries, docuseries, talk shows and shorts. The service will stream the equivalent 40,000 live games per year from 100 member associations, as well as 11,000 women’s matches per year. Additionally, football fans have access to every FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup  ever recorded on camera – a total of over 2000 hours of content. The offering includes highlights, goals, interactive games (such as votes, quizzes and fantasy games) as well as news and tournament information.

The football association has stated that FIFA+ will not be streaming matches from World Cup Qatar 2022.

The club has said the service will include hundreds of hours of archive footage, in addition to documentary content such as Antonio Conte: 202 Days  — a documentary about the team’s Italian coach’s first few months in the job. Tottenham F.C. tapped Endeavor Streaming – a digital video technology company – to power the service.

Spursplay will be available for an annual subscription of £45, reduced to £35 for season ticket holders and club members.

Pete Bellamy, SVP of Global Sports and International M&E, Endeavor Streaming, said: “We are incredibly proud to be partnering with Tottenham Hotspur in delivering a brand new OTT experience. Spursplay is the first of many team-based direct-to-consumer services we will launch in sport across the US, EMEA and APAC. The direct-to-consumer ambitions of top-tier clubs and teams go well beyond the technical delivery of video.

“The leading sports organisations require a partner who can advise and execute the most direct path to growth in both consumer engagement and revenue. At Endeavor Streaming, it’s our job to ensure that Spursplay delivers for the Club and its fans to the highest level”.

Pierre-Olivier Bouche, Media, Programming and Operations Director at Tottenham Hotspur F.C., said: “We believe Spursplay will revolutionise the way fans access Club content. We know that fans are itching for the return of live Spurs action and Spursplay will be the only place for that this summer.”

In other football streaming news, FIFA has launched its first CTV app for its streaming service – FIFA+ – on Hisense VIDAA-powered devices. The service offers the equivalent of 40,000 live games per year from 100 member associations, as well as 11,000 women’s matches per year. The offering includes highlights, goals, interactive games (such as votes, quizzes and fantasy games) as well as news and tournament information.

Guy Edri, President of Hisense’s VIDAA platform, said: “Since launch, FIFA+ has been giving a new voice to so many fantastic stories from across the world of football, and Hisense is proud to amplify them even further by adding the platform to our VIDAA-powered devices. We’re also incredibly excited to announce the daily show, a new format for tournament coverage that will put fan culture at its core.”

Charlotte Burr, FIFA’s Director of Strategy, Corporate Development and FIFA+, added: “This is an important step for FIFA+, and we’re excited to work with Hisense as we grow the platform. Innovation is a key focus for FIFA and so Hisense’s VIDAA-powered TVs is a natural home for the FIFA+ app. Football fans with connected devices will soon be able to experience our extensive content collection directly on to their Hisense TVs.”

Additionally, “for the first time ever” football fans have access to every FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup  ever recorded on camera – a total of over 2000 hours of content. The football association has stated that FIFA+ will not be streaming matches from World Cup Qatar 2022. The offering includes highlights, goals, interactive games (such as votes, quizzes and fantasy games) as well as news and tournament information.

FIFA+ also launched with original content in the form of documentaries, docuseries, talk shows and shorts, telling stories “from local grassroots to national teams and footballing heroes past and present”. Among the exclusive titles included in the offering is Ronaldinho: The Happiest Man in the World, Croatia: Defining a Nation, Dani Crazy Dream, and Icons. The football association has said the content will be localised in five language initially – English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese – and then offer Mandarin, Bahasa, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Arabic and Hindi as language options in the months following.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said: “FIFA+ represents the next step in our vision to make football truly global and inclusive, and it underpins FIFA’s core mission of expanding and developing football globally. This project represents a cultural shift in the way different types of football fans want to connect with and explore the global game and has been a fundamental part of my Vision 2020-2023. It will accelerate the democratisation of football and we are delighted to share it with fans.”