In 2018, I identified that the EFL's collective iFollow digital offering was not working for Hull City. Content was slow to deliver, limiting our ability to repurpose footage for social media in real time. The platform was glitchy. There was no local commentary. And the Club was ceding both control and commercial upside to a league-wide service that did not reflect our standards or our ambitions.
Rather than accept the status quo, I built the case for an industry-first opt-out - redirecting the sponsorship funds the EFL had previously retained for their digital offering directly to the Club, and building 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.
This went against the grain of the rest of the industry, but set a quality benchmark.
The Problem with the Collective Offering
Match footage was not available quickly enough for real-time social content - a critical disadvantage in a 24/7 digital media environment.
The iFollow platform was technically unreliable, undermining the fan experience and damaging brand perception.
Local commentary was absent, reducing the value of the product for the Club's core domestic audience.
The Club had no control over pricing, packaging, content standards or commercial inventory.
Sponsorship funds were retained centrally by the EFL, with the Club seeing limited return on its own audience and IP.
The Decision
I scoped the financial and commercial viability of an opt-out - 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 We 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.
My Role
Commercial case. Built the financial and strategic viability argument for the opt-out - including cost modelling, revenue projections and risk assessment.
Platform strategy. Led pricing, packaging and territorial rights strategy for both domestic and international audiences.
Technology partnership. Partnered with StreamAMG to deliver the broadcast infrastructure, overseeing specification, build and quality assurance.
Production agreements. Finalised in-house broadcast production arrangements enabling full Club ownership of match footage.
Launch and operations. Oversaw go-to-market, subscriber acquisition and live production operations across the season — including troubleshooting across home and away fixtures.
Integration. Ensured immediate alignment with the Club's social, content and communications teams — making real-time repurposing of footage a core operational capability from day one.
Impact
Established Hull City's first owned live streaming platform - a genuine industry leader at EFL Championship level.
Delivered a materially better product for fans: faster content, local commentary, additional camera angles and a reliable, Club-branded experience.
Gave the Club full ownership of all match footage and broadcast content - accelerating digital output and social media capability across the season.
Generated commercial return above and beyond the cost of delivery, improving margin versus the collective offering.
Created a scalable digital broadcast model aligned to future media rights, sponsorship inventory and commercial growth.
Strategic Impact
Tigers TV Live was not just a streaming platform. It 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 of the EFL's collective offering - 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.
It also created something more durable: a direct-to-fan digital relationship, a first-party data asset, and a broadcast capability that the Club owned outright - positioning Hull City as a digitally progressive, commercially disciplined organisation at a time when that framing mattered most.