YouTube has signed deals with MP & Silva and its digital rights partner Rightster that will see a new football channel launched on the Google-owned video-hosting website, reports SportsPro. Love Football will include highlights from Italy's Serie A, France's Ligue 1, US Major League Soccer, Brazil's top tier league, the English Championship, as well as the FA Cup and Capital One Cup from England.
Clips of interviews with players and managers, documentaries and behind-the-scenes footage will also be part of the channel offer.
In July, MP & Silva signed a deal with Rightster to provide worldwide distribution, marketing, monetisation, and production services for the agency's digital sports rights portfolio.
"For the first time, Rightster provides MP & Silva with centralised visibility and control of all its sports rights, including complex geographic restrictions and release windows, across both YouTube and all other platforms and publishers - allowing them to do the best possible job for each league," explained Rightster chief executive Charlie Muirhead.
Stephen Nuttall, senior director, sports, YouTube EMEA, said: We're delighted to be able to offer content from Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1 and other international leagues to YouTube's passionate football community around the world. Our ambition is to establish YouTube as a destination for goals and highlights and this deal adds another top league to YouTube's football offer."
Andrea Radrizzani, group chief executive at MP & Silva, said: "Launching Love Football on YouTube is an extremely exciting project for us. In addition to highlights clips our new channel gives us the ability to stream live sports content. We can now for the first time engage directly with consumers and football fans on a global scale".
