La Liga in August piloted an OTT subscription service that lets fans watch second-tier Spanish football matches, according to Seb Joseph of DIGIDAY. The move is "the latest example of sports organizations taking control of their own brands and broadcasting live games to audiences." It is "risky, as most sports rights owners struggle to provide enough value to fans to have those relationships," which are usually held by broadcasters. If successful, the OTT service "could stretch to markets like India and North America," where La Liga President Javier Tebas hopes to grow his league by "taking risks" the Premier League will not. One of "those steps is streaming matches on multiple online platforms." La Liga Chief Communications Officer Joris Evers said, "Whether it's our own OTT service or streaming to other platforms, it's important that we learn from these projects about the people who watch our sports." Beyond cash, La Liga "also wants viewing data from the online platforms it sells content to." Evers said, "The more we know about our commercial audience, the better we can present that audience to commercial partners." La Liga "may not own its audience on social networks, but access to that data means more insight into viewers," which can subsequently be sold to sponsors, Evers said (DIGIDAY, 10/18).
