Sky Sports launching new social media channel

Sky Sports has teamed up with Whistle Sports to launch a new social media channel dedicated to creating original football content aimed at young fans.

The service will use Sky’s Soccer AM brand to enable viewers to watch content on multiple platforms, with its own YouTube channel and a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Vine.

The content produced will include original programming, videos and posts covering football topics such as gaming, fantasy football, stats, and skills.

The move is the first collaboration since Sky’s US$7 million investment in cross-platform specialist Whistle Sports in October 2014.  Since then the two companies have been working together on creating new content, aimed at young millennials.

The Soccer AM channel on social media will feature a number of original content strands including event weeks, with quarterly programming focused on specific themes, as well as new regular shows.

The launch will see the first event week focused on the release of FIFA 16, bringing together well-known vloggers to look at the characters that surround the game, its evolution and role in sports gaming,

Dave Gibbs, director of digital media at Sky Sports, said: “Whistle Sports has led the way in producing entertaining digital sports content in the US for some time now with hugely engaged audiences. The new Soccer AM channel on social media is going to do something very different to what football supporters are used to from Sky Sports. We will produce new types of content, with new presenters for new audiences. By combining our expertise and talent, we hope to produce something that will really excite young football fans.”

Whistle Sports CEO John West said: “Young millennial sports fans increasingly use social media to drive their engagement with live sports. Our community of compelling creators have grown to serve that need and engage a growing generation of global sports fans,” pointing out that Whistle Sports recently broke an aggregate 100 million global fans and followers across social platforms. Sky makes a perfect partner for our international expansion due to their commitment to innovation. This new brand, new content and new approach around the world’s most popular sport is a great new offering.”