Alexia Putellas’ first game with London City Lionesses was watched by a peak concurrent live audience of around 3,500 in Spain – not on a broadcaster, but on a YouTube channel.
London City’s 2-1 win over Manchester United was streamed on the YouTube channel of Mundo Maldini, a Spanish-language YouTuber with over 1.3 million subscribers.
For the remainder of the season, one WSL game a week will be shown on Eleven TV, a new venture launched by Putellas, while all other WSL games during a weekend will be shown in the region on the Barclays WSL’s YouTube channel.
The Cutback understands that the WSL declined to renew its deal with Movistar, the Spanish pay-TV broadcaster that carried rights to one exclusive game per week last season, instead opting to work on a new streaming offer. The agreement with Movistar had prevented the WSL from streaming other matches in the territory on YouTube, thus limiting visibility for the league.
The league has now opted to explore a digital-first approach with Putellas, resulting in a new deal with the London City star’s media venture. The move has certainly generated buzz and will help WSL Football reach young women’s football fans in Spain, but these sorts of agreements are never without their hiccups. Tonight’s stream of London City’s opening game experienced some technical issues early on, with sound quality below the standards of the average YouTuber.
Eleven TV has said it is setting up the “broadcasting infrastructure” to stream the rest of the season on the new Putellas-owned channel.
The new digital broadcaster’s ambitions are to “become a leading destination for women’s football across the Spanish-speaking world” and broadcast interviews, analysis and original formats, as well as live games.
The deal comes on the back of a surge in “creator-led” partnerships across football. Last season, Germany’s Bundesliga partnered with Mark Goldbridge’s That’s Football channel and The Overlap in UK streaming rights deals. The partnerships had mixed results, with limited concurrent live views.
This season, the Bundesliga added Jamie Vardy’s new YouTube channel to their English YouTube distribution, while renewing with Goldbridge’s That’s Football.
Vardy’s coverage is being produced by Banijay Entertainment, with Vardy and guests featuring as pundits.
What sets this deal apart from Vardy and Goldbridge is Putellas is a current player, and an influential figure within Spanish football. What influence she will have in any of the coverage remains to be seen.