Ekstraklasa SA, the Polish top tier football league, has chosen leading global media services company Red Bee Media, as its technology partner to jointly develop the Ekstraklasa.TV streaming platform. The evolution of Ekstraklasa.TV will commence this season, and the changes will primarily relate to greater interactivity and personalization, further improvement of the user experience, and implementing an advertising model. Future updates are intended to include the possibility to expand the platform with additional sports content (not only football-related) and integration of Ekstraklasa.TV with cable networks.
"The experience, especially from the last year, has shown that foreign fans are eager to watch our league, so this is yet another reason for us to continue developing and providing the viewers with ever-more interesting content, better tailored to their individual needs. Content that is both football related, covering Ekstraklasa and, in the future also matches of Fortuna 1 Liga or the competition within the Polish top level women's football league - Ekstraliga, as well as other games or sports. We’ve already been after initial talks with the other leagues and this will be our focus over the next dozen or so months. Ekstraklasa.TV, developed in collaboration with Red Bee, will most certainly become a completely new visual and user experience.”
Red Bee is one of approx. 30 foreign and domestic companies that submitted their bids within a multi-stage tender for the development of Ekstraklasa.TV, organized by Ekstraklasa.
Red Bee is a leading global media services company, and a trusted partner to some of the world’s strongest media brands and broadcasters, as well as new, innovative businesses and content owners. The company was originally a part of the BBC and is now fully owned by Ericsson. Every day, millions of people across the globe discover, enjoy and engage with content prepared, managed, broadcast and streamed through Red Bee’s services. The company has been involved in the launch of multiple streaming services in the past year, including SportsTribal in the UK, and Wnited, the world’s first streaming service dedicate to women’s football.
"Media consumption, particularly of video content, including sports, is rapidly changing. The extent to which the pandemic affected social life also expedited this trend. So, we’re observing the growing market share of streaming platforms, a deepening of the multi-screen phenomenon, and a concurrent increase in popularity of short but exciting videos, especially among the youth. We are monitoring these changes and plan to take our OTT platform to the next level, providing the fans with Ekstraklasa.TV v.2.0 with new functionalities, and more brief, attractive, and information-rich video formats.”
"Red Bee is a proven brand. The company has numerous innovative projects in its portfolio, it is familiar with market trends and knows which directions to follow in terms of business and technology. It is characterized by thinking outside the box, innovation, good understanding of the sports business and expectations of content recipients. The strengths of our partner include vast experience and compatibility with the needs of Ekstraklasa and our producer company.”
The fans will be able to experience the first outcomes of the cooperation between Red Bee and Ekstraklasa already before the 2021/22 season. The fine-tuned Ekstraklasa.TV will be available in Polish via www and mobile apps on iOS and Android. Furthermore, with the help of Red Bee, Ekstraklasa.TV will also to be available on multiple Smart TV platforms, starting with LG, Apple, Android and eventually Samsung.
"We are happy to be a part of the evolution of Ekstraklasa.TV and we look forward to contributing to its development, streaming top quality European football to international and Polish audiences through our OTT platform. We can see a clear growth in direct-to-consumer propositions like this, where brands such as Ekstraklasa are making the most of the opportunity to connect with their fans, and monetize their content rights.”
The Ekstraklasa.TV website was launched in the summer of 2019, and now has approximately 200 thousand registered users worldwide. It enables – after purchasing a subscription or single-match pay-per-view access – the fans abroad (except for countries covered by exclusive broadcasting licenses) to watch all PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa games live. In addition, football enthusiasts gain access to a lot of extra video content, such as highlights or most interesting in-game events. Ekstraklasa fans in Poland have free access to the website with the highlights from all games and other video materials, except for live broadcast.
Red Bee Media is the leading global media services partner for innovation and growth. We enable some of the world’s most recognised media brands, broadcasters and content owners to instantly connect with audiences anywhere at any time. Every day, millions of people across the globe discover, enjoy and engage with content prepared, managed, broadcast and streamed by Red Bee Media. Headquartered in London, with more than 2,000 media experts in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, Red Bee Media provides innovative solutions across the entire content delivery chain, including Playout, Streaming, Distribution, MCR, Media Management, Access, Content Discovery, and Post-Production services.
BORN IN BROADCAST. LIVE FOR MEDIA.
For press enquiries, please contact: Gabija Jonsson
Head of Communications, Red Bee Media
gabija.jonsson@redbeemedia.com
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