The BBC has won the rights to show Bundesliga matches. However, they will be sharing those rights with YouTuber Mark Goldbridge, the first time such a deal has been done.
Per The Athletic‘s Sebastian Stafford-Bloor:
That game — and all other Friday night fixtures for the next two seasons — will be shown live on the BBC, on both the website and the iPlayer. The Overlap, a British-based YouTube channel with 1.5m subscribers, and Goldbridge’s That’s Football, which boasts a further 1.38m subscribers, will share those rights, showing 20 live Friday night games in 2025-26 in watch-along formats.
It’s a fascinating, and perhaps inevitable, development. YouTube watchalongs, pioneered by Mark Goldbridge and the likes of Arsenal Fan TV, are hugely popular. Crucially, they have the capacity to reach viewers that traditional outlets can’t or don’t reach. Social media clips of these streams are also popular – fans of opposing sides often enjoy seeing hosts like Goldbridge having a meltdown when their team doesn’t do well. It will be interesting to see how the format works when the host is not a passionate support of the team they are watching.
The Overlap has become increasingly popular too. It features the likes of Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane and Jill Scott chatting. There are also high-profile guests and interviews, including a recent one with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
The WSL has pioneered show matches live on YouTube. It helped increase viewership numbers. The. Bundesliga will be hoping for a similar boost.