Vicky Elmer (Beercock)

In 2018, the EFL's collective iFollow digital offering was not working for Hull City. Content was slow to deliver, limiting the ability to repurpose footage for social media in real time. The platform was unreliable. There was no local commentary. And the Club was ceding both control and commercial upside to a league-wide service that did not reflect its standards or its ambitions.

Rather than accept the status quo, the case was built for an industry-first opt-out - redirecting the sponsorship funds the EFL had previously retained for their digital offering directly to the Club, and using them to build a superior, independently operated OTT streaming platform in its place. Tigers TV Live was the result: a fully owned, Club-branded broadcast service that gave fans a better product, gave the Club full content ownership, and generated commercial return on top of the cost of delivery.

No EFL club had done it before.

The Problem

The collective offering had four fundamental failures. Match footage was not available quickly enough for real-time social content - a critical disadvantage in a 24/7 digital media environment. The platform was technically unreliable, undermining the fan experience and damaging brand perception. Local commentary was absent, reducing the product's value for the Club's core domestic audience. And sponsorship funds were retained centrally by the EFL, with the Club seeing limited return on its own audience and its own IP.

The question was not whether the Club could do better. It was whether the commercial case for doing so could be made clearly enough to justify the risk of going against the rest of the industry.

The Case & The Decision

The financial and commercial viability of an opt-out was scoped in full - demonstrating that the Club could build and operate a superior platform for less than the EFL was retaining in sponsorship, and generate additional revenue on top. The case covered production costs, technology partnerships, content infrastructure, pricing strategy and commercial upside across domestic and international audiences.

The opt-out was approved. The redirected funds were invested in Club-owned broadcast capability. Tigers TV Live was built, tested and launched - an entirely new digital infrastructure delivered within the 2018/19 season.

What Was Built

A fully branded, Club-owned OTT service delivering live, on-demand and replay content across desktop, mobile and tablet.

Multi-camera match coverage with local commentary, bespoke graphics and full replay functionality.

Flexible subscription models by territory, compliant with EFL broadcast regulations, covering domestic and international audiences.

Instant access to match footage for real-time social media, PR and fan engagement - a capability the collective offering could not provide.

A scalable digital broadcast model integrated directly with the Club's content, communications and commercial teams from day one.

The technology partnership was with StreamAMG. In-house production agreements were finalised to ensure full Club ownership of all match footage. Go-to-market, subscriber acquisition and live production operations were managed across the full season.

Impact

A materially better product for fans: faster content, local commentary, additional camera angles and a reliable, Club-branded experience.

Full Club ownership of all match footage and broadcast content - accelerating digital output and social media capability across the season.

Commercial return above and beyond the cost of delivery, improving margin versus the collective offering.

A scalable digital broadcast model aligned to future media rights, sponsorship inventory and commercial growth.

A first-party data asset and direct-to-fan digital relationship that the Club owned outright.

Strategic Impact

Tigers TV Live was a statement about how a football club should think about its relationship with its own audience, its own content and its own commercial future.

The decision to opt out - to take control rather than outsource - required building a credible commercial case, securing internal buy-in, navigating regulatory requirements and delivering a live broadcast product in a compressed timeframe. The fact that it worked, and worked profitably, demonstrated that clubs do not have to accept the limitations of centralised league infrastructure if they are willing to invest in the thinking and the delivery to do better.

The broader principle extends well beyond football: owning your platform, your content and your audience data is not a technology decision. It is a strategic one. And the brands and organisations that understand that earliest compound the advantage fastest.