With a global fanbase spanning millions, Barcelona look to flex digital muscles

It has been a 12 months of turmoil for FC Barcelona. Two managerial sackings and subsequent appointments, a humiliating Champions League exit in August, Lionel Messi’s public declaration about wanting to depart the membership earlier than staying again reluctantly and subdued switch exercise have mixed to make it a 12 months to overlook for the membership.

However, off the pitch, the Catalans wish to make important headway into a brand new battlefield, that of video content material, with a documentary collection on the interior happenings of the membership being one of many first large releases. Barcelona had launched an in-house manufacturing home in early 2019, named Barca Studios, and have this 12 months launched an OTT streaming service known as Barca TV+.

Armed with these two wings, the membership goals to trump fellow elite golf equipment throughout Europe within the digital house. The membership earlier this month launched its first large undertaking to its Indian viewers. “Matchday – Inside FC Barcelona”, an eight-part collection documenting the journey of the membership and its gamers from inside throughout the 2018-19 season, has now been made obtainable in India on OTT streaming platform Discovery Plus.

“This is a format that is of interest to the public. Normally when you see a game, you see a player just in his role as a professional athlete. But with content like this, you see him bringing his kid from school, having a barbecue, meeting his friends. This kind of content is perfect for OTT platforms,” Didac Lee, a Barcelona board member who additionally heads the membership’s digital technique, defined throughout a video interplay.

Recently, Amazon had launched a collection documenting Tottenham’s 2019/20 season. According to Lee, an increasing number of sports activities establishments the world over are acknowledging the necessity to have interaction with followers by means of tasks like this. “We feel it’s the best way to connect and engage with our global fanbase. In the digital world, the best currency is content. Especially content that is authentic,” he mentioned.

“So if we record a documentary that is scripted, the audience would see through it. Our idea is to keep generating more content like this; it is one of the pillars of the club’s strategy. And it is not just for FC Barcelona, but for all sports clubs in the world, this is a strategic area.”

The Catalan giants at the moment are lining up just a few extra releases and have additionally signed up well-known Spanish screenwriter Albert Espinosa to work on a fictional drama set across the membership’s academy La Masia. “We just announced a cartoon TV show that is Barca themed and is very interesting for younger fans. Then we have Albert Espinosa, with whom we are working on a TV show on La Masia. It is a fictional show that explains the story of a young player who comes to La Masia and how he evolves over the course of the next few seasons. This is content that is not exclusively designed for football fans; it’s a personal story and even if you don’t like football, this is content that you would find interesting,” Lee elaborated.

“We are also recording some movies, all Barca themed, about the values of the club, our legends, about social topics. And we believe that Barca Studios is our biggest bet in the digital world. Because with the global fanbase that we have, it is important to deliver content, and not just sports content but entertainment content as well. Some of the content that we will be producing will be on major digital platforms and some will be on our own OTT platform Barca TV+,” he added.

(Discovery Plus will launch these eight episodes over the following eight weeks on Mondays at 6 am and the episodes may also be obtainable in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu)