Beyond the Bundesliga: Sky Deutschland Overwhelmed by Success of Sky Next Generation

Beyond the Bundesliga: Sky Deutschland overwhelmed by success of Sky Next Generation Plans to roll kid-focused programming out into other sports By Heather McLean

Thursday, February 9, 2023 - 14:31

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Sky Deutschland's new child-focused programming series focused on live Bundesliga matches, called Sky Next Generation, is taking off and will move into other major sports later this year.

Sky Next Generation is now a monthly feature in the Bundesliga calendar, with programmes made for, featuring, and using input directly from children under the age of 14 years old.

Sky Germany chose Der Klassiker between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, which took place on 8 October, to launch the programme. The second was FC K ln versus Werder on 21 January, and the third episode is set to take place this weekend with RB Leipzig versus Union Berlin on Saturday 11 February.

Week by week it's a lot of extra work. It takes a village, but it feels like everyone is benefiting from it, and that's how it should roll

Julia B ttger, director of operations at Sky Sport, says: From the first one, which was on Der Klassiker, you could wonder why we used the biggest game from an operational point of view because it means extra people, extra track, a lot of extra positions, a lot of extra work. But I think it was worth all the extra efforts.

From the beginning we decided to not change our main coverage, to keep it as it is and on the same channel. It's the same output [for the main coverage] and then [with the new coverage for children] we're keeping that as separate and making it feel great for a new audience. I think with keeping it completely separate, also with the new faces and the new people that came in and also with the kids of course I think that was a success from the beginning, making it unique.

The Next Generation' treatment could be rolled out to Sky Deutschland's coverage of other sports. B ttger says that the broadcaster has been approached by another major federation that is interested in creating its own Sky Next Generation programme. On how they came to Sky Germany, she says: They were aware of what we were doing because we did Der Klassiker. I think that's the first time that it happened that way around; that they're coming to us asking if we could do a programme together. That is, I think, the biggest success that we could have.

Being approached by this federation about Sky Next Generation means others can also see the potential of a previously ignored audience for live sport, states B ttger: I think they have the same challenges that we have. They can also learn from this and get new ideas for the future, even for their main coverage, or for a special kids section. We have the same interests, she notes, comparing federations to pay TV broadcasters. It's tackling the same questions; they have the same interests [as us] so we work closely together. That's also what we did with Bundesliga. They're really open, so the DFL supported us from the beginning to introduce the idea to the clubs. It was supported by their management.

She adds: Week by week it's a lot of extra work. It takes a village, but it feels like everyone is benefiting from it, and that's how it should roll.

Engaging kids and parents

Sky Deutschland decided to create a live football programme aimed specifically at children to engage that younger audience and simply see what the opportunities were in that segment.

Stephanie Mirlach, head of project management sports, Sky Deutschland, says: From my perspective, to do something for the younger audience was something that was already in the back of our minds for a long time. We did some test cases, which included some apps, and then in September last year we just decided, let's do it! Let's start without three months of preparation or analysis! , she laughs. It started out with a small project group and then it became bigger. I think it was really successful in that just a few weeks, we had everything set up and just started it.

Mirlach continues: The target was to reach younger audience. We set the goal that [the audience] should be between eight and 14 years old, which should enjoy this new format. What we experienced right from the first game is that we did reach this target audience, but we also reached parents, and also in general people that are not that interested in deep sports analysis, stats and tactics, but who enjoy more the entertainment side of football, and see it more as an event.

We were quite overwhelmed by all the positive feedback. There was not one negative feedback because I think people just enjoyed it. Of course, if you are like this stats fan or something, then you need to watch the other channel to have the clean coverage of this game, but I think we're actually quite happy with the results and the feedback.

She continues: To reach this younger audience, we're not just [relying on] our linear broadcast; it's a lot around social media where the YouTube reach is even higher [with a young audience], and this is also the reason why we make the pre-match show freely available on YouTube and the Sky Sports' website.

While the Sky Next Generation programmes have already attracted a significant number of children aged three to 13, they have also pulled in parents in the 30 to 39 year old segment, when the figures for those age brackets are compared to the main Bundesliga channel viewing figures. However, the major success in numbers so far is on social media, where many children are consuming the new content.

Mirlach comments: The social media numbers are really growing, even [when you look] from the first to the second game. We had 10 million views of social media posts on the second episode [of Sky Next Generation], which

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