YouTube
- Rob Pilgrim adds EMEA leadership of Primetime Channels to sports partnerships brief
- Germany becomes new YouTube service’s first international market outside of the US
Google-owned streaming platform YouTube has launched its Primetime Channels subscription product in Germany, marking the service’s first introduction into a market outside the US.
Primetime Channels offers users access to live content, documentaries, films and series provided by YouTube’s partners via individual subscriptions. German broadcasters Sport1+ and Sportdigital Football are among those offering their content on the platform. Others also doing so include the European League of Football (ELF), extreme sports channel World of Freesports and motorsport broadcaster Motorvision TV.
YouTube also has confirmed Sport1 Media’s eSports1 dedicated professional gaming channel will also soon become accessible via Primetime Channels and entertainment service Paramount+ is set to be added later this year.
Rob Pilgrim, who was previously YouTube’s EMEA head of sports partnerships, will also now head up the platform’s continental Primetime Channels team.
In a blog post, Jens Kirsch, strategic partner manager and Primetime Channels lead, said: “With Primetime Channels, we offer our partners the opportunity to use both the existing size of YouTube as a powerful video content discovery tool and the unique fan and community functions such as comments, likes and shares to win fans, to go into increased interaction and to bind them in the long term.”
SportsPro says…
Launching Primetime Channels in Germany sees YouTube make a play to become a centralised hub for numerous subscription platforms in the sports and entertainment sectors. Unlike the YouTube TV service in the US, Primetime Channels is not an IPTV offering and is fully integrated into the main platform, which in theory provides incredible reach.
Speaking to Dwdl, Sport1 chief distribution officer Andreas Gelhardt cited the opportunity to attract new and younger audiences as a key reason to partner with YouTube. Amid the increasingly challenging economic conditions, he also noted that the platform offers an alternative distribution model for smaller providers.
With a number of German sports offerings coming on board for the launch of Primetime Channels, YouTube’s ability to add services from more top-tier broadcasters and rights holders will be closely observed. In the US, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) League Pass over-the-top (OTT) product and the National Football League’s (NFL) Sunday Ticket out-of-market package are available on Primetime Channels.
