Premier League +: Football following the Disney playbook with streaming platform
When the Premier League last week quietly confirmed that it will be launching its own streaming platform, Premier League +, in Singapore, it might have slipped under the radar for many.
At first glance, it’s a new app in a new territory; a controlled test of in-housing distribution and cutting out the broadcasters.
But this looks far bigger than a distribution tweak. It hints at something bigger – the league taking a tentative first step towards rethinking its position within the football ecosystem.
For decades, the Premier League has operated as the ultimate rights wholesaler. It bundles live matches and sells them territory by territory to broadcasters, who in turn manage the details – subscriber relationships, advertising, pricing and data.
It’s been a wildly successful model so far, garnering a global audience of more than 4.7bn. But now, the league is rethinking how it reaches audiences worldwide and who owns that relationship.
With Premier League +, it is taking its first serious step toward owning the full customer experience from kick-off to the final whistle. In Singapore, it will control pricing, the user interface, the advertising environment and, perhaps most importantly, the data. It will know who is watching, when, how often, and will utilise these insights to better target its fans.
Premier League +
In many ways it’s the Disney strategy. For years, Disney licensed its films to broadcasters and distributors globally. Then came Disney+ hot on the heels of the streaming revolution.
Suddenly the company was no longer merely a supplier of content but the owner of a global platform and the direct relationship with hundreds of millions of households. This wasn’t just a new revenue source but a fundamental shift in the industry’s centre of gravity.
Premier League + hints at a similar ambition. Today, it’s live matches in one territory. Tomorrow, it could be a broader “Premier League World” – a content universe with live games, highlights, archive footage, behind-the-scenes access, fantasy football integration, merchandise, ticketing – all in one place.
For advertisers, the implications are even more significant. Traditional football advertising has been largely aimed at a mass market – perimeter boards, shirt sponsorships and 30-second broadcast spots. Highly sought-after, expensive and generally not specific. If the distributor and the competition organiser are one, the equation changes.
A sponsor could tailor ads to Manchester United fans in Asia, Arsenal supporters in London or neutral viewers watching a bitter derby face-off at 3pm. That level of precision is commonplace in the streaming era, but it’s been largely absent from top-tier live sport.
Changing the game
There are, of course, risks. Broadcasters remain critical partners, particularly in the UK where restrictions on broadcasting football could stop this plan in its tracks. The Saturday 3pm blackout, established to protect lower-division matches in the 1960s, remains in force but could come under threat as streaming opens up access to more matches nationally.
There is also the operational challenge of delivering flawless live streaming at scale, something many tech giants have learned is harder than it looks.
Yet starting in Singapore feels deliberate. It is a technologically sophisticated market, but small enough to test pricing strategy, monitor consumer behaviour and advertising models without destabilising core territories.
If it succeeds, the implications stretch well beyond one app in South East Asia. We could be witnessing the early stages of football’s long-term “rebundling” – not around broadcasters, but around league-owned platforms.
For now, Premier League + is a pilot. But strategically, the Premier League is stepping out from behind its broadcast partners and into the foreground of its own customer relationship.
Guy Meyers is a subscription expert at Recurly.