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
Print This Story
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
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
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 
