FIFA+ promises to offer on demand original content and live streaming of football matches from across the world
FIFA have just announced the launch of their very own live streaming service, FIFA+. Using the service, fans will be able to watch live men's and women's football every week and even enjoy archived fixtures from previous decades. Not only that but the on-demand section will feature original content like documentary series, with FIFA announcing that some have already been made about Brazil stars Ronaldinho and Dani Alves. What's more, all of this content will be available completely free.
The main appeal of the platform is sure to be the live football. FIFA have said that fans will have access to "the equivalent of 40,000 live games per year", with about 1,400 a month being available from launch. That's a lot of football.
While there will be a huge amount of football to watch on FIFA+, it's important to point out that the world's very biggest leagues will not feature, for obvious reasons. World football's governing body can't distribute games from the likes of the Premier League or La Liga because those lucrative TV rights are owned by select broadcasters. They will instead be able to put some spotlight on less glamourous leagues who haven't sold their rights. According to The Hollywood Reporter, fans could expect to see games from Mexico, Denmark, Poland and Angola, to name a few countries.
Fans also shouldn't get too excited about seeing editions of the FIFA World Cup on the platform any time soon because it's very unlikely that this tournament will feature either. The 2022 tournament in Qatar definitely won't be on FIFA+ as rights deals have already been signed for the competition across the globe, and with the amount of money involved, it's hard to see a scenario in which FIFA decides to give those games away on its platform for free.
With FIFA+ not requiring a paid subscription, the service will be entirely funded by advertising, at least in launch. Nobody knows whether or not this might change in the future. It might not have the biggest matches in the world and probably won't be the destination for casual fans, but free football from across the world will definitely appeal to hardcore enthusiasts, even if they do have to sit through some adverts.
Another glimpse at the future of watching football
This news may not be that seismic, at least right now, when considering the stature of the leagues involved, but this could represent another move towards the long awaited online-only future of watching football. The world was shocked when Serie A became the first league in the world to make matches available to domestic fans exclusively online when it signed a deal to sell its domestic TV rights to OTT platform DAZN at the start of this season. FIFA+ could be the next logical step on the road to the "Netflix of football" which many are forecasting.
If FIFA+ proves to be a success for a niche audience, it will prove to football club owners and investors that there is demand for watching football via live streaming. If it does that, expect to see the big leagues around the world pushing to create their own direct-to-consumer channels for monetising their domestic matches. Some are said to be already flirting with the idea.
It often seems that Europe's top five leagues and the clubs within them are making an obscene amount of money out of TV rights contracts with traditional broadcasters, but unsurprisingly they are not actually getting close to the full potential of income there is to be had. If you take into account the number of individuals who pay for a subscription to watch live football on TV around the world, even a very low priced model would yield a far greater profit than what they are making from the current rights deals.
We are moving closer to the age of "PremFlix" and "LigaFlix" every week and if FIFA+ proves to be successful, we might just get there a whole lot sooner than we expected.
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