FIFA has named Sky Media as its new ‘official and exclusive’ ad sales representative for the FIFA+ streaming service across the European market.
The move comes at key time in the broadcasting calendar, with the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup set to kick off in Australia and New Zealand later this month.
FIFA+ will provide a wide variety of content during the tournament, supplementing the linear TV coverage with live streams, full match replays, highlight cut downs and match previews.
“We are thrilled to have Sky Media as our official ad sales representatives for FIFA+ in Europe, the UK, and Ireland,” FIFA chief business officer, Romy Gai said.
“Sky Media’s expertise and leading capabilities in advertising sales will maximize the commercial success of FIFA+ content enabling us to create new commercial opportunities.
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He continued: “This collaboration comes at an exciting time as we prepare to showcase the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, and we are confident that together we will deliver an outstanding digital experience for football fans.”
The extensive new deal with Sky’s ad sales arm caps off a highly successful first year of operations for the streaming service, which generated 190 million views on match recaps during the recent 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, whilst a live streaming event held in Brazil broke records by attracting 40 million unique visitors.
Targeting greater global expansion across connected TV apps and FAST channels, the collaboration will enable FIFA to further monetise its content in new territories, and will offer increased FIFA World Cup inventory opportunities for brands.
Sky Media managing director, Brett Aumuller added: “It’s great to be collaborating with FIFA as they move into the Connected TV and FAST channels space. We already provide a wide-ranging football offering to advertisers, and adding FIFA+ will make it an even simpler and more compelling proposition for brands.”
