Sportradar Supports Infrastructure for Australia’s First Live, On Demand OTT Platform

Sportradar has entered into a partnership with Australia’s first national OTT platform for football (NPL.TV) in partnership with Football NSW & Football Queensland. The deal marks a significant milestone for Sportradar within the Oceania region with several sports and leagues looking to the National Premier Leagues platform as a benchmark to distribute and broadcast their proprietary content live and on-demand.

The direct-to-consumer live and on-demand streaming platform will initially launch showcasing Australia’s strongest National Premier Leagues competitions – New South Wales (Football NSW), and Queensland (Football Queensland) with the opportunity for the other member federations to join over the course of the 2020 season. More than 1,000 games will be broadcast live and exclusive on the jointly developed platform.

“Today’s partnership agreement is the first-of-its-kind in the region and we’re proud to have jointly developed the OTT platform with Football NSW & Football Queensland,” says David Edwards, Director of Sports Media and Partnerships, Oceania, Sportradar

“We’re seeing an increasing demand from both state-based and national sporting federations in establishing direct-to-consumer streaming platforms. Niche competitions suit the OTT distribution model by allowing rights holders to take control of their assets and develop a direct relationship with their fans on their own terms.

“We look forward to helping National Premier Leagues competitions increase digital revenues and supercharge their fan engagement through our unique, data-driven approach to OTT.”

The business model is unique in that it allows Football NSW, Football Queensland and Sportradar to explore both advertising integration and paid user subscriptions on a revenue share basis. NPL.TV is available at no cost to all Australia-based fans, with subscribers also able to upgrade to a ‘premium’ Full HD offering for a small monthly charge. Fans can watch live streams and full match replays along with a range of on-demand fan-driven content to be supplied by each member federation.

“Our partnership with Football Queensland and Sportradar is a defining moment for the National Premier Leagues. NPL.TV provides us with the means to really understand who our audience is and provide robust viewership numbers to the market,” says Brian Meinrath, Head of Commercial, Football NSW. “By aggregating content on the one platform, it gives us a huge opportunity to present existing fans with superior live and on-demand content as well as showcase our leagues to a new and expanding audience.

Sportradar has developed two portals for the International and Australian markets which users are automatically directed to according to their location. This has enabled Football NSW / Football Queensland to establish an international paywall for non-Australian users, with premium upgrades also available to drive additional revenues. The NPL.TV OTT platform is available through all web browsers and will also be available to download as an app (iOS and Android).

“Football Queensland is an innovative organization and by introducing the Sportradar built OTT platform, we will be making football and our competitions more accessible to supporters in Australia and around the world,” says Tracy Grierson, GM Marketing, Media & Partnerships, Football Queensland. “Our partnership with Football NSW is an example of the unity of our federations and clearly demonstrates our desire to address future opportunities together for the promotion of our sport.”

Up until now, National Premier Leagues matches have only been available to watch via social media, which provides a limited amount of insight into user behavior. Sportradar’s evidence-based streaming strategy provides rights holders with deeper, data-driven insights into consumer behaviour while allowing them to tell more engaging stories to fans across the full range of digital distribution channels.