German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland and OneFootball have renewed a distribution agreement that allows the Berlin-based digital platform to offer Sky’s live German football coverage to its users on a pay-per-view basis.
The new agreement covering the 2020-21 season will allow OneFootball users to continue to watch Sky’s coverage from the second-tier 2. Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal knockout clubs competition.
Sky’s highlights clips from the English Premier League will also continue to be available to OneFootball users from 1am (CET) the day after the match in question.
Sky, faced with increasing competition from new digital rivals, last season made its games available on a pay-per-view basis for the first time after agreeing a revenue-share deal with OneFootball.
OneFootball said that users of app can access the livestreaming coverage “in 20 seconds with three clicks” with billing taking place via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. This season’s coverage will begin this weekend with the first round of the 2020-21 DFB-Pokal.
Lucas von Cranach, chief executive and founder of OneFootball, said: “Last season, we demonstrated together that the step taken to create a new and innovative offering for modern football fans was the right one. We saw continuous growth in the number of buyers per week over the course of the season and have set ourselves the goal of continuing that trend in the coming season.”
Hans Gabbe, senior vice-president, sports rights and commercialisation at Sky, added: “The cooperation with OneFootball allows Sky to make live broadcasts of individual matches available on a pay-per-view basis for the first time. We have extended our streaming offer on another platform with wide reach and can address a young target group in particular in this way.”
Last season, the pay-per-view cost for matches from the 2. Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal started at €3.99 ($4.74) per game. Matches from the top-tier Bundesliga have not been included in the offering.
As the rights-holders to various other top-tier football competitions in Europe, including the Uefa Champions League and Premier League, Sky considered the addition of other live rights to the Onefootball service. However, approval would be required from the rights-holders in question.
Sky Deutschland holds live rights to the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga from 2017-18 to 2020-21 in a deal worth an average of €876m per season. The broadcaster has also retained live rights to 200 top-tier matches per season in the 2021-25 cycle, plus all matches from the second tier.
Having initially made its name as a provider of football news, data and statistics, OneFootball branched out into the live streaming sector. It has also signed various pay-per-view distribution agreements with other broadcasters and football rights-holders, including deals for the Polish Cup, with Sportdigital Fussball and Eleven Sports.
Meanwhile, OneFootball has announced its latest content tie-up with a leading European football club in a deal with Ligue 1 side AS Monaco.
Through the agreement, all editorial content published on the official club website will be available on the OneFootball app and website.
Editorial content agreements signed recently by OneFootball include tie-ups with Bundesliga side Schalke and Premier League outfit Manchester City. A strategic distribution tie-up with Dugout was also announced in April.
Detailing the partnership, Monaco said: “All of the latest about Les Rouge et Blanc, including statistics and live scores will be available globally in five different languages (French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian) ensuring maximum reach and a customised user experience. The club news will appear in the user’s news feed and be earmarked as official club content through the incorporation of the AS Monaco logo and the famous red and white diagonal.
“On top of that, through close co-operation between the editorial teams of AS Monaco and OneFootball, breaking news can be sent instantly by push notification to all app users or to segmented user groups – even exclusively to Les Monégasques, AS Monaco followers. This unique feature not only allows the club to engage with fans in real time but also ensures high visibility of targeted news articles at the user’s fingertips.”