YouTube to Feature International Football Action

LONDON: YouTube has struck up a partnership with the digital rights specialist Rightster and the international sports media rights agency MP & Silva to launch Love Football, a new online sports channel.

The new dedicated YouTube channel will include highlights from Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1, U.S. Major League Soccer, Brazil’s Serie A and the Championship, FA Cup and Capital One Cup from England. Fans can subscribe to content on YouTube from their favorite leagues. Clips of interviews with players, managers, documentaries and behind-the-scenes footage are also part of the offering.

Stephen Nuttall, the senior director of sports for YouTube EMEA, said: “We’re delighted to be able to offer content from Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1 and other international leagues to YouTube’s passionate football community around the world. Our ambition is to establish YouTube as a destination for goals and highlights and this deal adds another top league to YouTube’s football offer.”

Andrea Radrizzani, the group CEO of MP & Silva, commented: “Launching Love Football on YouTube is an extremely exciting project for us. In addition to highlights clips our new channel gives us the ability to stream live sports content. We can now for the first time engage directly with consumers and football fans on a global scale.”

Charlie Muirhead, the founder and CEO of Rightster, added: “We’re delighted to be supporting MP & Silva with the exciting launch of the Love Football on YouTube. The YouTube platform now has many amazing new features that sports fans will love. Rightster’s audience development team in London and New York have already been busy working to alert fans and build the loyal and passionate subscriber base these channels deserve. For the first time, Rightster provides MP & Silva with centralized visibility and control of all its sports rights, including complex geographic restrictions and release windows, across both YouTube and all other platforms and publishers—allowing them to do the best possible job for each league.”