WARSAW, Poland. August 19 (PSN) – The long awaited official live streaming service for the PKO Ekstraklasa has now opened to the public.
Ekstraklasa.tv, which is the name of the new platform, will feature both a subscription based service along with free options.
Previously, from 2015, Ekstraklasa matches were available free of charge outside Poland on the Dailymotion platform. Since then, the league has pulled away from the French based website in favour of making way for its own specialized service. To do this, the Ekstraklasa teamed up with the Icelandic live broadcasting firm OZ Sports to create Ekstraklasa.tv.
Designed for Polish football fans domestically, and around the world. Ekstraklasa.tv’s ultimate aim is to boost the visibility and exposure of Poland’s professional top tier football league globally.
“Considering the size of the Polish audience worldwide, it goes without doubt that the base of potential recipients of the Polish league OTT platform is quite broad,” said Stefan Felsing, former Ekstraklasa consultant and Lagardère Sports executive to Sportspro.
“It would allow Ekstraklasa to the build and maintain a community of football fans who will concurrently be its customers. This move fits in with the global tendency prevailing in the digital world of today, in particular in the sector of the sports events broadcasting rights.”
Big news today, but Ekstraklasa has finally released its live streaming service (late, but better than never). Season pass is $49.99, pay-per-games are $2.99 each. However, you can still watch highlights and game VODs for free. https://t.co/riCI6DP8yT #Ekstraklasa
— Pat Novak (@PatricNova) August 20, 2019
Apart from live matches available to viewers abroad, the OTT platform (Over-The-Top: a service available regardless of the cable or satellite subscription), also provides access to current Match Highlights, Highlights from the previous seasons, collections of all goals and best match actions, as well as, for instance, Robert Lewandowski’s and Krzysztof Piątek’s top goals from their Ekstraklasa League days.
After the live broadcasts, Ekstraklasa matches will also be available on demand, depending on local rights restrictions.
However, available services will differ for Polish fans domestically. For now, Polish based audiences will only be able to access Match Highlights as early as 10 minutes from the end of the match, see all goals and best moments of each game, archived content and other short clips. On the other hand, live game streaming will not be available for those who live in Poland.
Ekstraklasa.tv can be accessed via the desktop service and iOS mobile application, available via smartphones, laptops and tablets. Smart.TV apps are also under way.
In addition, the Ekstraklasa has signed a media partnership with the Telekom Austria-owned broadcaster Planet Sport to show 296 matches in Serbia, Croatia, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. That deal means that those territories will not have access to the OTT offering.
“Our games will become one of the main points of the Planet Sport offer, next to the UEFA Champions League, they will also be promoted as important games in the region.” said Małgorzata Borkowska, Ekstraklasa media rights consultant.
“We also are in talks with American broadcasters through the agency Cubillos and an Indonesian broadcaster who is interested in broadcasting matches involving Lechia Gdansk.”
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