Video-sharing website YouTube has launched a new free online channel to offer a single destination for its football coverage.
The Gillette Football Club channel on YouTube will provide a single platform for the website’s coverage of goals, highlights and behind-the-scenes footage from the Spanish Liga and Italian Serie A, as well as 50 football clubs.
The channel will also show news from sports content providers ESPN and TalkSport and programming provided by production company Big Balls.
Grooming products manufacturer Gillette is the main sponsor of football content on the website in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The channel will launch in beta mode before a full launch in the coming weeks, and new functions such as social gaming will be rolled out on the channel at a later date.
Matt Brittin, vice-president of sales and operations at YouTube parent company Google’s northern and central Europe division, said: “YouTube is the home of great quality content on the web for viewers and advertisers alike. The ever expanding team of YouTube football partners create a diverse and compelling content line up for fans.”
On Friday, Spain’s La Liga became the latest football league to agree a deal with YouTube in a three-year deal, from 2012-13 to 2014-15. YouTube agreed the deal with the Mediapro agency, the global rights distributor for the league.
The deal covers the top-tier Liga, the second-tier Segunda División and the Copa del Rey knockout tournament from the second round, but not including the final.
Footage will be uploaded to the channel 30 minutes after games are finished, but videos will not be available to be embedded across other websites. “For now we want users to come to our channel, we’ll see later,” Mediapro’s Ignacio Arrola told the El Confidencial website. “The goal is for fans to follow their teams more closely, and not just what is broadcast on television.”