Despite the ongoing pandemic Spring Media has grown reach for the Arsenal and Chelsea club content offerings and International Programming Block. Customers include prominent broadcasters worldwide such as Turner in the US for its B/R Live channel, BeIN Sports in Asia Pacific, StarTimes in Sub-Sahara Africa, PCTV in Mexico, SportKlub in the Balkans and Viacom18 in India.
During the Covid-19 pandemic and while English Premier League was postponed, the clubs continued to produce relevant club and player features, as well as offering archive material, season reviews and classic matches. This proved to be a valuable and consistent supply of top tier content for broadcast partners in times of a live-sport hiatus.
With the two clubs now going head-to-head at Wembley in the FA Cup final on Saturday, a record number of fans will be able to enjoy the match (delayed) as well as exclusive build-up and post-match content through the two club’s global media partners.
Spring Media entered cooperation with Arsenal FC and Chelsea FC during 2019 overseeing the worldwide distribution of the clubs international programming blocks, magazine programs and in-house produced content. Commenting on the first season of cooperation, Torsten Billing Partner at Spring Media says:
“Spring Media have an approach to club media rights where we aim to evolve the perception of what club-tv is and the value it can bring to its broadcast partners. It as a unique opportunity for clubs and broadcasters to enter into a partnership where the broadcaster gets year-round access to high quality content, as well as a direct connection to the club and its large and loyal local fanbase. It is very impressive how the clubs continued to produce top class content throughout the pandemic, and I know it has been highly appreciated by the broadcasters in these challenging times”
Kristen Miao, StarTimes Sport Director, said:
“Broadcasting Arsenal TV and Chelsea TV during the outbreak while all live sport had ceased was of great value. African people are huge football fans, to be able to enjoy programs related to their favourite football clubs at that time was a relief for our subscribers.”
