According to a report from Sport Bild (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), Bayern Munich is quickly learning the benefits of managing its own game day broadcasts for the preseason:
Through the exclusive broadcast of the preseason friendlies on FC Bayern TV Plus, Bayern were able to increase the number of subscribers to the club’s TV by more than 100% to over 60,000 subscribers within a month. That’s more than all other Bundesliga clubs combined and on par with the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester United at the top of Europe. The broadcast of the games has brought in a seven-figure sum to the club – significantly more than TV stations would have paid for the live broadcasts.
Clearly, the club felt the impact of this financially.
“The fan response at our test matches has clearly exceeded expectations. This underlines the outstanding appeal of FC Bayern at home and abroad. We are and will remain a football club, but as a top European club it is essential to independently produce media content on a large scale and to distribute it globally via our numerous platforms. In this way, we not only create fan bonding, but also a basis for monetization through sponsorship and media revenue,” Bayern’s media director Stefan Mennerich said.
If you are looking to cut streaming services instead of add them, this probably is not great news for you. What does this mean for fans? Well, for this season, you could have gotten two months of FC Bayern TV Plus for €8 (roughly $9).
Given the success of the venture — and the demand for the product — it will be interesting to see how Bayern Munich manages it moving forward.
Looking to catch up on all the action in the Bundesliga from over the weekend? Awesome, then you should check out the new show on Bavarian Podcast Works, “The Bundesliga Rundown with Marcus Iredahl” where we hit on all of the latest results and storylines from across Germany. You can get the show on Patreon, Spotify or below:
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