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\n The growing popularity and reach of the Premier League globally is leaving rival European football competitions struggling to compete.\n <\/p>\n
Not only to find an audience, but to find outlets to even show the matches.<\/p>\n
So German football had to think differently – going to where Gen Z is engaging with football through content creators.<\/p>\n
And that’s why tonight, Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich will begin their defence of the Bundesliga title live to 1.4 million subscribers on the That’s Football channel on YouTube.<\/p>\n
It’s run by Mark Goldbridge, known for passionate but often provocative, punchy commentary about players on streams going viral.<\/p>\n
His brand was built by being filmed reacting to watching Manchester United matches.<\/p>\n
“People need to appreciate that we have a certain content style, and that’s very, very popular,” Goldbridge told Sky News.<\/p>\n
“That is an area that needs to be catered [to] and that’s why, without the rights, we’ve had such big, big audiences.”<\/p>\n
Goldbridge revealed he isn’t paying to show his 20 Friday night matches this season – reinforcing how the Bundesliga struggled to find a buyer in Britain.<\/p>\n
Sky Sports previously had a four-year rights deal to exclusively show those German matches here, but will now only show the prestige Saturday evening slot live.<\/p>\n
European leagues are finding it increasingly difficult in this market to sell their rights because domestic football is so dominant and appealing.<\/p>\n
The focus of football budgets is on domestic games for Sky as well as Discovery-owned TNT Sports, which also focuses its European football coverage on men’s continental competitions, including the Champions League.<\/p>\n
More Premier League matches will be shown live than ever before – with at least 215 on Sky, the parent company of Sky News, and others on TNT.<\/p>\n
Sky Sports also has live men’s rights to the English Football League and Scottish matches, as well as sharing the Women’s Super League with the BBC.<\/p>\n
The Bundesliga is also making the games broadcast by Goldbridge’s channel available to the BBC to stream online. They will further be on The Overlap, a YouTube channel part-owned by Gary Neville.<\/p>\n
‘A progressive step’<\/strong><\/p>\n Bundesliga International CEO Peer Naubert said: “Our approach is as diverse as our supporters: by combining established broadcasters with digital platforms and content creators, we are taking a progressive step in how top-level football can be experienced.<\/p>\n “This multi-layered strategy allows us to connect with more audiences across the UK and Ireland, giving every supporter the chance to engage \u2026 in the way that suits them best.”<\/p>\n While the former England and Manchester United player is a star pundit on Sky, he could also be seen as a rival to the Comcast-owned broadcaster by attracting fans to newer outlets of his channel.<\/p>\n Read more from Sky News: Goldbridge doesn’t see himself as a rival yet to long-established broadcasters.<\/p>\n “We’re not looking to replace what you can find on Sky or the BBC or anything like that,” he said. “This is a community that will be live with us, watching the Bundesliga, learning about it.<\/p>\n “And if I get a pronunciation wrong, or I don’t know about a player, then I’ve got my community there to back me up. I don’t profess to know everything.”<\/p>\n ‘This is the future’<\/strong><\/p>\n But he can be relatable to audiences, with more than two million subscribing to his The United Stand channel, earning him millions of pounds over the last decade.<\/p>\n “We’ve been there growing in the background and I think certain media outlets have ignored that, maybe hoping it would go away,” he said.<\/p>\n “I certainly think synergy and collaboration need to happen more because there are things in the mainstream that I don’t like and there will be people out there that really don’t like the way we watch football, but a lot of people do.<\/p>\n “And it’s about offering that choice to people and there are different ways people listen to football on the radio, people watch it with a commentator, some people turn the audio off completely, some people watch things like this (watch-a-long).<\/p>\n “And I think that is the future, to offer more choice.”<\/p>\n \n
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