FIFA Launches Streaming Service, Will Broadcast 40K Games

Soon, soccer fans around the globe will have access to thousands of games every month in a dozen languages — for free.

FIFA is launching an ad-supported streaming service, FIFA+, which will broadcast 40,000 games this year.

• While top-flight European leagues will be included in FIFA+’s coverage, existing rights deals in those leagues will focus the service on underserved areas such as Angola, Denmark, Mexico, and Poland.
• The service will broadcast 11,000 women’s games this year.
• FIFA+ will initially be available in English, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, and expand to Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, Italian, Arabic, Bahasa, and Korean by June.

The service will also include 2,000 hours of archival content, plus documentaries and docuseries.

Global Ambitions

While FIFA+ won’t broadcast the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the service seeks to build on and feed off the excitement around the global soccer tournament. 

“We’ll be strategically extending — so we will be potentially going into gaming, social community, and potentially subscription depending on where this goes and where the industry disruption heads,” said FIFA+ lead Charlotte Burr.

The service aims to reach 200 million unique users by the end of this year. It will initially launch only as a digital service, but FIFA is in talks with broadcast partners.