Bayern Munich "has agreed to a global media partnership with soccer site Goal.com that targets audiences in the United States and China in particular," according to HJ Mai of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL.
The three-year agreement was announced on Monday.
Rudolf Vidal, managing director of Bayern Munich LLC, said that the content partnership "provides Goal.com access to the German club’s players and coaches along with behind-the-scenes content." Bayern, meanwhile, "gets editorial and video content surrounding the Bundesliga from Goal.com that it can feature on its own website." It is a relationship "aimed at helping Bayern build its own brand and international fan base, but it also has the club’s league in mind." Vidal: "We [will] try to educate the audiences here in the U.S. and in Asia about the Bundesliga, not only about Bayern Munich. It will also help growing the Bundesliga." Goal is owned by Perform Media and "operates 37 localized editions in 18 languages." According to its website, it is "reaching more than 46 million users a month." One of those editions "is a U.S. edition; there is not currently an edition dedicated to China."
Goal.com Global GM Martyn Jones: "We have plans for China." Until then, he said, Goal’s other editions -- including an overarching int'l edition -- "will be used for content delivery that could target China."
Jones said that other Perform units "could benefit from the deal as well, including Sporting News and sports video-on-demand platform ePlayer, with certain elements being rolled into that service." Jones: "Goal is the central property that we are going to focus on. But I think in the U.S., there will be certain elements of content that we look at distributing through Sporting News" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, issue 8/31).
