Why Oath greenlit its first UK series in Yahoo Sport’s football show For The Win
Yahoo Sports has launched a weekly football video series called For the Win featuring pundits Colin Murray and Dion Dublin, marking the first series greenlit in the UK since Yahoo was acquired by Verizon and joined AOL to become Oath.
Colin Murray and Dion Dublin hosts of For the win
The company has become a media powerhouse powered by Verizon's ad capabilities to boot and as such has been pushing heavily into content to best leverage this. In the UK since the rebrand, the football punditry show becomes the first show launched. In this push, the company wants to become the P&G of media and technology.
For the Fans, the 20-minute show looks to engage football fans across Oath’s portfolio of brands including Yahoo, AOL, HuffPost, MAKERS and Engadget.
On the move into football video, to James Dickens, head of sport, Yahoo UK, told The Drum: “15 – 20 minutes episodes aren’t quite short form, but it isn’t long form either. People are consuming more video than ever and we want to offer premium, engaging video regardless of the length.
The show has been created for the “time-poor football fan” to provide “insight and information about the week’s games in a digestible format”. This is as Yahoo Sport, draws nearly three million UK consumers visit Yahoo Sports global sites according to comScore. Football news is a large driver of this driver according to Dickens.
On whether the show shows a new direction from the company Dickens concluded: “We produce video content on a daily basis for Yahoo Sport and regularly gain insight from big names in the sports industry. For The Win represent an evolution in the type of content we’re making as it’s a longer form format, fronted by superb presenters and a different guest each week.”
The show launched 11 August.