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Manchester City Sports Marketing Technology

Man City adapts to changing viewing habits with Amazon Fire TV club app

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By Tony Connelly, Sports Marketing Reporter

November 1, 2016 | 3 min read

Manchester City have launched their own app on Amazon Fire TV in a move intended to align the club with the changing viewing habits of fans and reach a wider global audience.

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Man City are the first Premier League club to launch their own app on Amazon Fire TV

The app allows fans to stream CityTV videos directly onto a connected TV with the Amazon Fire TV platform. The content on the Premier League club’s channel ranges from behind-the-scenes tunnel access on match days and Pep Guardiola-led training sessions to player interviews and special features, such as the Global City series.

The move will allow Man City to strengthen the distribution of its club channel while having a presence on Amazon’s hugely popular TV platform. Last season the CityTV YouTube channel was the second most popular football club channel in the world, with the equivalent of 150 CityTV video views every minute of the year.

“As consumers’ viewing habits change and audiences migrate to over-the-top streaming services from companies like Amazon, we want to be there,” said Diego Gigliani, senior vice-president for media and innovation at City Football.

He added: “Amazon Fire TV is a growing platform with huge potential and we’re extremely excited to bring CityTV content to it.”

Man City are the latest club to experiment with the distribution model of their club TV content as more clubs move beyond the troubled waters of cable TV and focus on the vast audience base which exists on digital platforms. Real Madrid have been showing content from their club TV channel on Facebook Live and have saw positive viewing figures since doing so.

The new app follows closely on the heels of some other digital innovations which the club have undertaken. Recently they began using Facebook Instant articles, increasing the prominence of their content in their fans’ news feeds. Manchester City also launched an official club Apple News page and an official sticker set for iMessage which offers iPhone users embed Manchester City-themed images and animations into iMessage conversations.

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