Ekstraklasa TV is an innovative direct to consumer live-streaming service, designed for fans of the premier football league of Poland- the PKO BP Ekstraklasa.
The service is a key part of the League’s international media rights sales strategy. It has certainly helped raise awareness of the Ekstraklasa brand and, as counterintuitive as that may sound, build TV exposure in 23 territories, around it. Since 2019, Ekstraklasa.TV has built a subscriber base of nearly 180.000. In July 2021, the League have managed to migrate most of the existing clients to the re-launched, upgraded version of the service and currently own a subscriber base totalling 235.000 users (with the vast majority of users being active). This result has been achieved without any promotional campaigns whatsoever.
On July 23rd, 2021, the League have re-launched Ekstraklasa.TV, which was built in partnership with Red Bee Media, part of Ericsson. The new release is still carrying 306 Live transmissions of PKO BP Ekstraklasa matches per Season, outside of Poland within the European Union; and free Match Highlights as early as 10 minutes after the Final Whistle, as well as short-form content available globally after registration. On top of the existing desktop version, the iOS and Android apps, October will see the release of the Samsung Tizen Smart.TV app – something the League has never seen before, whilst the end of the year will bring the launch of the LG Smart.TV app – again, a complete novelty for the PKO BP Ekstraklasa League.
As opposed to the previous version, Ekstraklasa.TV has significantly advanced in terms of look&feel, as well as the available features. The registration process has been simplified by adding social media logins. Users can now also follow their team and instantaneously access that content by going straight into the Club tab. Their favourite videos can also be found in the Favorites tab, with related content visible right underneath. Navigating the service is a smooth experience, with the videos adapting their quality to the user’s internet speed.
We hope to grow further thanks to the recognition the SportsPro OTT Award may bring to us.
