The sports entity and Indian Super League‘s (ISL) governing authority, Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) has inked a partnership renewal with the world’s largest football media platform, OneFootball.
In more than 190 countries, the ISL will broadcast live streaming and highlights of every game of the upcoming 2023-24 season owing to a new global distribution arrangement.
The Indian Super League, which began releasing live and non-live material on OneFootball throughout the 2021–22 season, has sparked significant interest among fans and the OneFootball community at large, with the number of ISL league followers increasing sevenfold since then.
On the partnership, the FSDL spokesperson, said, “We are delighted to partner with OneFootball for another season to bring the high-octane and pulsating action from the ISL to fans all around the world. The Indian Super League has a global fan following and with the increase in appetite to watch the new season, we are glad to provide our global audiences with the live viewing experience. Our partnership with OneFootball has been a strong success, and we hope that this season continues to globalise Indian football and increase its reach and appeal.”
Yannick Ramcke, Head of OTT, OneFootball, said, “The Indian Super League’s brand and reach has grown tremendously on OneFootball ever since we first partnered during the 2021/22 season. In fact, we consider the league as a blueprint for how football leagues have started to leverage our platform to develop and later commercialize an international, digital-native audience. Launching the league’s first direct-to-consumer offering in high-demand markets and on the back of OneFootball will allow them to innovate even further on content distribution and presentation, including multi-language broadcasts, time-shifted viewing, as well as near-live and short-form versions of their media product.
“In other markets, the mandate remains to remove access barriers for consumers and to bring the league even closer to their fans by tapping into the global OneFootbal community.”
For the ISL’s historic 10th season in 2023–24, international fans from around the world will have the opportunity to watch all 139 matches of India’s top-flight competition on the OneFootball website, in addition to mobile, tablet, and connected TV applications, both for free or via a highly flexible pay-per-view offering. To enhance the live match viewing experience, a plethora of free non-live content, featuring highlights and other ancillary programming, will be made accessible on OneFootball, which includes the OneFootball Publisher Network.
The start of the ISL season on September 21 marks the beginning of a new relationship that will offer Indian football to all OneFootball customers.
Users will have a variety of alternatives to swiftly, flexibly, and inexpensively stream ISL live matches when the exclusive direct-to-consumer ISL on OneFootball launches in select regions in the MENA area. These direct-to-consumer solutions, which are now only available as single-match pay-per-view packages, will soon be expanded to include team and league season passes. They offer a convenient, all-inclusive, and unique customer journey and viewing experience.
Outside of these MENA regions, OneFootball’s live coverage of the ISL remains free to air throughout the globe, except the Indian subcontinent, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and the territory of Kosovo. Moreover, the initial direct-to-consumer markets consist of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait.