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Youtube channels, That’s Football, hosted by Mark Goldbridge, and The Overlap have won UK broadcast rights to show the Bundesliga live this season, according to The Athletic.
Alongside the BBC and Amazon Prime, The Overlap and That’s Football, will share live broadcasting rights, showing 20 live Friday night games.
The Overlap is a British-based YouTube channel with former players, Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Jill Scott, Ian Wright, and Roy Keane and has over 1.5m subscribers.
That’s Football is the Mark Goldbridge football fan channel and has over 1.4m subscribers.
The new agreement is due to be announced today and makes the Bundesliga the first major European football league to award part of its live broadcasting rights in the United Kingdom to Youtube content creators.
This is part of an emerging trend away from traditional broadcasting models.
Recently, The Rest is Football became the first UK platform of its kind to secure a highlights package with Spain’s La Liga.
Importantly for UK-based Bundesliga fans, all games will be free-to-air apart from those on Amazon Prime.
The BBC has won the rights to broadcast every Friday night game live until 2027.
Sunday games on Amazon Prime will be pay-per-view for £2.49.
The Bundesliga’s own YouTube channel will also be live broadcasting all Friday night games in the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga, the second tier of German football.
The move may disappoint traditional Bundesliga fans in the UK.
Sky Sports has been the long-term Bundesliga provider.
Their deal has now ended, but Sky will retain the rights to the Saturday evening game.
The move is part of a Bundesliga strategy to attract a new and younger global audience.
On Youtube, Goldbridge’s channel regularly attracts over 250,000 viewers, with a high of one million.
The Overlap’s most recent video attracted over 1.5 million, with previous highs of over 8 million.
Given their popularity and global reach with younger audiences, the Bundesliga will be excited about the prospects of this new venture.
The Bundesliga kicks off this Friday on the BBC with reigning Champions, Bayern Munich welcoming RB Leipzig to Bavaria.
You will be able to follow along to all the latest news, previews, and action right here with GGFN.
