Man City and YouTube Join Forces

Mon 10th Oct 2011 | IT & Technology

Manchester City Football Club have become the first Premier League Club to sign a content deal with the video sharing giant, YouTube.

The commercial deal will enable the club to control their rights-owned or club-created videos on YouTube, which receives over 3 billion views per day worldwide. In addition, City will also be able to manage the advertising around its content, which is uploaded on to the site every day.

Since the channel’s launch, the Club has invested heavily in populating www.youtube.com/mcfcofficial with content in order to grow it into an international communications platform for fans and followers, both at home and abroad.

The first video uploaded of Samir Nasri signing for the Club received over 500,000 views in just three days.

Around 100 videos per month are created by CityTV, the Club’s in-house production team, for the official club website www.mcfc.co.uk, which will also be uploaded on to the new YouTube channel. (Rights restrictions mean that footage of matches will not be available via YouTube.)

The deal is part of the Club’s strategy to give fans as much access as possible, repaying loyalty by making exclusive, behind-the-scenes content available for free.

Richard Ayers, Head of Digital, for Manchester City, said:

“Manchester City is having a phenomenal year of growth and development online. Our goal is to deliver a market leading experience for fans in terms of online video.  That means delivering the great content we make to where the audience is – ie on YouTube. This deal is the first move in laying the foundations of our syndication strategy and is part of a series of deals to expand our online capabilities.

“The ability to extend our reach and to increase accessibility to audiences is great, but we’re also looking forward to exploring the differentiating factors of YouTube, like using annotations, making bespoke interactive video and, more than anything else, becoming part of the thriving YouTube community.”

Jeff Nathenson, Head of Sports Partnerships for YouTube, said:

"We are excited that Manchester City has become the first English Premier League club to become a commercial partner with YouTube.  They are proving to be an exciting club both on the pitch and in the digital media space.  We believe this kind of deal will have a global impact, allowing them to reach new fans in new territories with compelling original content."

The YouTube deal is part of the Club’s long term strategy to develop ongoing commercial partnerships with leading online and social media companies.

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