Industry Shorts: Laliga, The Fa, Snapchat

LaLiga and Amazon Prime have agreed a new deal which will see the streaming service carry LaLigaTV, screening live matches from the Spanish top flight as well as more than 25 hours of weekly studio content and interviews.

In a distribution agreement that lasts until the end of the 2021/22 season, Prime Video Channels Prime users can purchase an add-on subscription of £6.99 per month. The move marks the first time that Prime has shown live football from an overseas competition in the UK.

LaLigaTV was introduced to the UK as a standalone linear channel by LaLiga’s broadcast partner Premier Sports and remains the UK’s only channel to offer all available live matches from a major football competition. 

A number of English football’s major bodies have sent an open letter to both Facebook and Twitter, highlighting increased levels of abuse aimed at footballers in recent months.

The heads of each of The FA, Premier League, EFL, WSL, Women’s Championship, PFA, LMA, PGMOL and Kick It Out have all co-signed a letter addressed to Jack Dorsey, CEO, Twitter and Mark Zuckerburg, CEO, Facebook, highlighting the abuse and calling for action.

The letter asks that, ‘for reasons of basic human decency, you use the power of your global systems to bring this to an end’. READ MORE

Discovery and Snap Inc have announced a new content and advertising partnership ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo which will showcase the best of Eurosport’s coverage on a new daily Show on Snapchat’s Discover platform.

The deal will also take into account the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, which is set to take place just six months after the Tokyo Summer Games, with summer content followed by a ‘Road to Beijing’ series following teams and athletes around the world. 

The pair will also produce a ‘Road to Tokyo’ series in the build-up to this summer’s event, with different Shows created by athletes and influencers in a variety of different languages and aimed at audiences across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

World Rugby has appointed video production company Whisper as its key digital video and audio production producer for 2021.

The deal will see Whisper create content across World Rugby’s channels, including social videos, documentaries, audio content, graphics and infographics. It will also deliver an enhanced visual look with Whisper Partner Chapter 3 Graphics.  

2021 will see World Rugby host the Rugby World Cup 2021 in New Zealand, as well as looking forward to the second time a sevens tournament features at an Olympic Games. 

Fnatic has announced two senior hires, appointing its first Chief Financial Officer, Patrick Foster, and a new Head of Production, Georgina Workman.

The London-based esports organisation says the pair will help it through the next phase of growth,  with Foster’s appointment as CFO capitalising on the momentum from the record-breaking crowdfunding campaign Fnatic carried out in Q4 2020, while Workman’s hiring will support ‘creative aspects across the business’. 

Sheffield United have partnered with sports and lifestyle brand New Era to launch a bespoke selection of headwear.

The range will see a selection of caps and knits that feature New Era’s 9FORTY and 9FIFTY fits, while the colourways incorporate traditional Sheffield United club tones as well as nods to iconic strips. 

Launched in the US in 1920, New Era has made headwear for teams across the NFL and NBA and is now progressing its partnerships across the Premier League. 

Independent sports publisher Snack Media has exclusively appointed Halfspace Group to work across data, audience and commercial services after a competitive pitch process.

In May 2020 Snack acquired social media business GiveMeSport which pushed its total reach to an estimated 42 million. 

After a competitive pitch, it has appointed Halfspace Group to implement the 1st party data solution from its sister agency ESB Connect as well as managing a strategic data collection process across the Snack Media brands. The data will then be enriched by the Halfspace data team and shaped to provide enhanced insights for Snack Media commercial and editorial teams. 

Anytime Fitness has made its online fitness platform, AF Connect Online, free to all users in a bid to keep people active during lockdown.

The gym chain recently launched the platform, which features a multitude of on-demand exercise classes, wellbeing content created by health experts and member discounts from partner brands such as Myprotein and Virgin Experience Days.

Premier League side Burnley will integrate all of the Burnley FC Women’s team and its operations into the football club, as part of a long-term strategy to boost women’s football. 

The club – which was recently taken over by US firm ALK Capital – says the move is the first step towards the long-term aim of making its existing women’s team a fully-professional outfit. 

The move aims to increase the team’s presence, infrastructure, and investment, and will see major investment into the side, including the creation of a new women’s academy. The women’s team will also share the club’s Barnfield Training Centre facilities with their male counterparts.

Podcast producer HWY61 has joined forces with sports presenter Alison Bender to produce a series of podcasts focussed on women in sport and the media.

The multi-series agreement will see  Bender present and co-produce a new original podcast called These Girls Did, telling the stories of successful women in sport, while HWY61 will also repackage her successful IGTV series Talent Takes Time into a new podcast series.

UK based Talent agency and events company The TM Group has launched a new talent division dedicated to retired sporting personalities.

The company already counts a large roster of rugby talent, and the new arm will see it work with the likes of Phil Thompson, Alex McLeish, Lee Sharpe, Kevin Sinfield, and Robert Huth