The Russian Premier Liga will become the first major league in the world to use YouTube’s ‘memberships’ as the main distribution channel of their rights outside of the home market.
All eight RPL fixtures each matchday will be available to viewers outside Russia and CIS in countries where ‘memberships’ is activated.
Commenting on the new partnership with Google, Evgeny Savin, marketing director of RPL, said: “We believe this partnership with YouTube is an opportunity for RPL to reach our fans living outside of Russia, as well as expand the existing fan base around the world”.
There will be two membership levels for the viewers outside Russia. The first includes two matches with English commentary each matchday and will cost a monthly fee of $2.99. The second, for $4.99 a month, gives subscribers access to all eight matches in Russian and two matches with English commentary as well.
Pavel Suvorov, commercial director of RPL, added: “Our partnership with Google is an up-and-coming project.
“We are looking into the promising prospect of launching our own OTT service or implementing it on the partner side for an international audience. Regarding this matter agreement with Google is an important step in implementing our plans, researching audience preferences, its sensitivity to the price and extent of conversion”.
Commenting on the changes in broadcasting, Leonid Shlykov, head of digital projects at RPL, said: “All last year we broadcasted the Russian Premier Liga on YouTube with a clean feed. We analysed data, collected user reviews, and recorded the growing interest of viewers in matches. This year we decided to go further and improve the quality of the product”.
All members will also have access to a weekly matchday review show in English. Highlights of all games will remain free.
