How Bundesliga is ‘expanding the field of play’ through distribution of sports rights to creators
In a first for a major European football league, content creators have been given a share of live match rights.
On Friday nights throughout the 2025-2026 season, UK viewers will be able to watch Bundesliga matches across four separate channels, two of which — Mark Goldbridge’s That’s Football (1.5m subscribers) and Gary Neville’s The Overlap (1.3m subscribers) — are YouTubers and podcasters.
The matches will also be available on the Bundesliga official YouTube channel (5.3m subscribers) as well as BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.
On Saturday nights, matches remain exclusive to Sky Sports, whereas Sundays are exclusive to Amazon Prime Video.
The move illuminates the Bundesliga’s strategic pivot to focusing on mass reach through tapping into new and younger audiences and increasing global sponsorship opportunities through digital channels.
Analysis: Should broadcasters be worried?
Sports rights are an essential asset to broadcasters’ commercial strategies for driving subscriptions and retaining audiences and in turn advertisers.
According to Ampere Analysis, in the UK, sports rights spend has grown at twice the rate of TV revenues since 2015, highlighting the value live sports holds despite shifting viewing habits.
As suggested by City analyst Ian Whittaker on LinkedIn, it is arguable the football league is utilising creators to attract younger audiences and insights as an experiment, rather than to replace traditional broadcasters.
In a recent interview with The Media Leader, Dan Cohen, director of product and innovation at Sky Media, outlined the opportunity of sports rights being given to creators as well as broadcasters, and the capacity this gives to brands to bring larger messages together.
“Rights holders are starting to lean into this fan-led economy, as well as Sky,” said Cohen. “Sky itself is also leaning into it with social content. I think its a real opportunity for brands going forward.
“A message on TV might be very different from one you want to give on Instagram or on X. Brands ultimately need to do that connection across all those different types of things.”
Why sport is every brand’s playing field — with Sky’s Pippa Scaife and Dan Cohen
Direction of travel
Perhaps the recent divvying up of sport rights across different platforms for US sports offers an indication of what’s to come for UK sports.
YouTube has won the exclusive US rights to broadcast the first game of the 2025 National Football League (NFL) season this Friday (5 September). It will mark the first time an NFL game will be streamed on YouTube for free, and no subscription to a broadcast or streaming service will be required — a notable feat for sports distribution.
Whilst the main broadcast will still feature legacy media talent with NFL Network host Rich Eisen as play-by-play announcer and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner as lead analyst, the IShowSpeed channel (20m subscribers) will simultaneously host a “Watch With” stream, which aims to target younger and more social-centric viewers.
When viewed in tandem with the Bundesliga’s embrace of the creator economy, there is an apparent trajectory of rights distribution becoming more inclusive of creator-led content. The potential benefit? Boosted reach, engagement and cultural relevance it can enable brands to tap into.
Nielsen data shows YouTube now accounts for more than 13% of all TV viewing in the US, more than half the entire cable universe and two-thirds of all broadcast viewership.
Tony Pastor, co-founder of social media and podcast production company Goalhanger, told The Media Leader the social-driven growth of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the US is an example of how distributing sports rights more widely is a winning strategy in a world of increasingly diversified viewing patterns.
The NBA allows fans to share clips freely on social media, which Pastor argues has led to: “Explosive growth in the popularity of basketball.”
Disney bets on sports for streaming growth while ITVX deal is ‘off to a slow start’
He added: “Sports that took a more restrictive approach have lost ground. Advertisers want to reach these same younger fans. And to do that, you have to go where they are — on digital and social platforms.”
Once seen as a platform for highlights and post-match reactions, YouTube is now becoming a primary destination for live sports, especially on connected TVs in the US market.
According to Robbie Spargo, co-MD of agency at Little Dot Studios, this reflects a transition to a more TV-style and “lean-back” attitude towards viewing on YouTube.
Spargo argued: “It is now true to say that buying placements on YouTube can be no different (and maybe even more targeted and more measurable) to buying TV and on-demand.”
Despite the platform’s growing popularity, there is still a clear consensus that YouTube is a complementary component of the sports ecosystem, with Spargo noting the value it holds as a tool for expanding reach, enhancing engagement and providing additional revenue.
Following the fans
The development of YouTube as a core platform for sport consumption doesn’t just reflect a shift in where sport is consumed — but in how.
As Ellie Moss, strategy partner at Havas Play UK, explained: “Audiences are consuming content through an increasingly diverse media mix, moving away from traditional broadcast, with the paid subscription model in sport increasingly turning fans off, and toward spaces that encourage connection and community.”
Moss further highlighted how podcasts and YouTube are ideal spaces for supercharging sports fandoms and creating spaces for sport sub-cultures to thrive.
According to Acast, in the UK, more than a quarter of listeners say sports podcasts give them a sense of community, with popular creators’ own built-in audiences offering advertisers and rights holders distinct access to a pre-established following.
There is a clear opportunity for brands to build an affinity with these communities, with an evident and growing preference from fans to be engaged beyond the confines of matchday.
“It’s less about replacing traditional broadcasters and more about, if you’ll forgive the pun, expanding the field of play,” said Rich Duff-Tytler, managing director of Stagwell’s Goodstuff’s social media outfit Goodsocial.
He told The Media Leader, moreover, that the Bundesliga’s decision to give match rights to YouTube creators marks less of a threat to traditional media and speaks more to an evolution of sports distribution.
This evolution acknowledges the rise in influence creators have, the increasing power of YouTube and shifting viewing habits of younger fans, as well as the potential for brands to cement their presence at its core.
Get in the game: why Havas Play thinks brands should be doubling down on women’s sport