Barcelona launches new streaming platform Barca TV+

Published on: 03 June 2020

Barcelona launched its new digital streaming platform Barca TV+ on Wednesday that it hopes will, one day, rival Netflix.

Director and head of the club’s digital area, Didac Lee told Sportsmail: ‘The phrase [Barcelona’s own Netflix] is an ambitious one but it sums up very clearly what the Barça TV+ project is about. This is something that is directed at a core of about 30 million Barça fans from the 350 million that follow the club online across the world.’

Lee’s digital department wants to triple the €100million (£89m) it makes annually for the club, within the next five years.

Barca TV+ will carry the traditional Barca TV club channel plus an additional 1,000 hours of on-demand video content developed by Barca Studios the club’s in-house production department.

Barca Studios produced the documentary series ‘Matchday’ last year that followed the team through the 2018-19 season and was launched last November in Japan and Europe on the Rakuten TV, and on Netflix in South America and Canada.

The idea is that with the launch of Barca TV+ the next big thing to come out of Barca Studios will be able to go straight on to the club’s own digital streaming platform.

Screenwriter Albert Espinosa is current writing a seven-episodes series set in La Masia due to be screened in the summer of 2021 that will follow the fortunes of a fictional young player who joins the club with aspirations of following in the footsteps of Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta.

Other programmes include ‘Ready! Antoine Griezmann’s challenges’, in which Griezmann dares his friends to take on certain challenges; ‘Origins’, a programme that traces the back-stories of Barca players beginning with Brazilian midfielder Arthur Melo; ‘Born to play’ looking at the club’s female players; and a programme called ‘100% Tito’ dedicated to late coach Tito Vilanova who won the league with more than 100 points in 2013.

Barca’s greater commitment to its global fanbase is well-timed as the coronavirus pandemic makes pilgrimages to the stadium from other countries less feasible.

Lee says: ‘Without doubt the launch of Barca TV+ takes place in a scenario completely different to the one we imagined because of the coronavirus. But we have been working on the launch of the digital platform and the CULERS Premium Membership for close to two years now.’

The new global membership programme ‘Culers Premium Membership’ is a play on the word ‘Cules’. Barca fans have always called themselves ‘Cules’. ‘Culo’ means backside in Spanish – ‘Cullers’ in Catalan and it has its roots in the club’s old stadium on ‘Calle de la Industria’ where the team played between 1909 and 1922 and where the backsides of the fans sat on the top wall of the stadium could be seen from the street below.

Bums on seats, or even on stadium walls, are no longer enough to support the club; especially not in the era of the empty stadium or the soon to be reduced-capacity stadium and Barca TV+ and CULERS Premium Membership is the response to those changing times.

The club say there are three options for supporters who want to access the new digital content. They can access limited Barca TV+ content by registering personal details and data or they can pay for unlimited access to all of Barca TV+’s content by paying €4.49 (£3.94) a month in the UK.

A third option, and the one the club is most keen for fans to opt for, will be to join the Culers Premium Membership programme, costing €34.99 (£30) a year in the UK and entitling them to unlimited Barca TV+ content and discounts on merchandise and tickets.

Next pre-season’s friendlies and the club’s traditional curtain-raiser Gamper tournament will be available on Barca TV+ but Lee says this is not the start of a new era when clubs will only show their first team’s games on the club channel without selling the rights to outside broadcasters.

He added: ‘The launch of our own digital platform responds right now to our commitment to offer our own content and products designed to satisfy the interests of our followers around the world.

‘That said, we are still convinced that television rights, in the format that is currently being followed, will continue to be one of the main traditional sources of income.'

Source: m.allfootballapp.com

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
Learn more