The recent rise of football documentaries on streaming platforms has taught broadcasters a lesson. Fans are no longer only interested in watching the action on the pitch, and they now seek greater immersion in the sport outside of matchweeks.
The Premier League’s offseason in the summer used to be an agonising waiting period for the on-field drama to return. Now, though, it could be turned into reality television, taking viewers behind the scenes of transfers and pre-season preparations. There’s even an opportunity to turn some aspects into game show-style content.
Broadcasters Need Summer Content
Football has started to span way beyond deciding who will win a match or a league. Now, there’s intrigue surrounding other aspects of the game, such as who will get the best players in and how managers will shake up their tactics. Broadcasters have already leaned into many of these things, as they need to keep producing content in the summer to keep viewers interested. But there’s the potential to build on this even more, and for documentaries to take viewers behind the scenes with things they’ve never been able to see before.
For example, a reality series could focus on the scouting process, showing a Premier League club’s talent department considering all the different potential players they could go for. Teams like Brighton and Brentford who use a Moneyball-style, statistics-driven approach could be interesting to focus on here. There could also be content that follows key stars who are expected to be signed, before even they know where they are going. With social media already putting a lot of this stuff out in the open, there’s less need for clubs to employ secrecy.
Transfer Activity Could Be Turned into a Game Show
Streaming platforms could even decide to turn the transfer window into a game show. With deals happening in real time and player values fluctuating, there could be shows that have contestants try to guess how much players are worth and which clubs want to sign them. There could also be transfer history rounds, where contestants have to guess how much players were sold for and where they ended up.
Now would arguably be a great time to release summer content like this, as game shows have enjoyed a massive resurgence in recent years. For example, shows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Deal or No Deal are so well-known that they even have related games at bingo sites UK. Players can enter a bingo room based on the latter and feel like they are in an episode of the ITV hit.
Natural Evolution Helped by Social Media
The move towards turning the Premier League offseason into a reality show or a series of behind-the-scenes programmes feels like a natural evolution. Social media has already brought people closer to these stars than ever, and many players have become celebrities off the field.
It makes sense to provide more content during the downtime between campaigns, as it helps keep interest in the sport high all year round. Varied content that includes reality television and game shows would make a lot of sense.
