The total volume of sports content on Match TV over these past five years added up to 35,179 hours, of which 9,726 hours were live broadcasts (more than 400 days), 1,452 hours were news, and 4,606 hours were broadcasts of the channel’s flagship program Vse na Match! (Everyone to the Game!). There were competitions in 94 different sports shown overall, from Russian favorites (football, hockey and biathlon) to the more niche (arm wrestling, bowling and sumo).
Match TV offered its viewers more than 170 cycles of its own programs, almost 100 documentary films, and about 100 special reports. Many of these works received the highest praise from the professional community, including the documentary film Alexander Karelin. Poedinok s Samim Soboy (Alexander Karelin. Bout with Yourself) and the program Totalny Futbol (Total Football), which won a TEFI national award in the nomination Television Project about Sports. Dmitry Zanin received an Orpheus statuette in the nomination Reportage Reporter/Cameraman for his special World Cup Live report, while Dmitry Guberniev won the nominations Best News Host and Best Sports Program Host/Sports Commentator. In total, Match TV won 10 TEFI statuettes and 43 more awards from various contests in just five years on the air.
The channel’s signature programs are its news releases. The world’s biggest sports stars and legendary coaches are regular guests in the Match TV studio and there are 14 news broadcasts each day. In addition to the video sequences, viewers can get up-to-date information in the news ticker and graphics, where the latest results, tables, statistics and best quotes from athletes are shown. The channel’s sports correspondents go live on air from all over Russia and from around the world.
Equipped with the latest television technology, Match TV continues to increase the number of its broadcasts year after year. At the moment there are almost 8,400 of them, and the places from where the channel can get a video signal are constantly expanding. The signal can now be picked up in about 70 Rusian cities, as well as 33 countries, including Brazil, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.
The launch of two new channels—Match! Strana and MATCH PREMIER—deserves a special mention. Match! Strana started broadcasting during the opening ceremony of the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade. Match TV was the official broadcaster of these multisport games, and since then the channel has broadcast more than 14,500 hours of content. Match! Strana’s main focus is domestic competitions and children’s sport. It is also worth noting the monthly program Pryamoy Razgovor s Ministrom (Direct Line with the Minister), in which the Russian Minister of Sport answers the most pressing questions about current issues. Most of these questions come from viewer posts on Match TV’s official social networks.
MATCH PREMIER is a premium channel focusing on Russian and European football, broadcasting not only live matches, but also exclusive programs and 24/7 news about football. Moreover, it oversees friendly tournaments between Russia’s top football clubs.
Match TV is putting a lot of effort into its digital development. The number of subscribers to its official YouTube channel reached 2.264 million people over the past five years, while its videos on the platform have received close to 1 billion views. About 300,000 videos have been posted at matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru, collectively receiving almost 800 million views. Matchtv.ru has also firmly established itself among the Top 3 most cited sports media outlets in Russia.
Given the current trends in content consumption, in which more than half of the video traffic comes from mobile devices, the only way to expand ones reach and maintain an audience is by increasing presence on digital platforms. In this regard, in addition to developing its own OTT services, Match TV will continue entering into partnership agreements with the largest players on this market. Since the Match! ecosystem implies a presence not only on broadcast TV channels but also on all existing digital platforms, the channel needs to regularly create original, adapted content that should be aimed specifically at the target audiences of specific media platforms. Match TV’s digital platforms allow it to promote and popularize new emerging sports, notably Esports.
As part of its fifth anniversary celebrations, Match TV established the National Competition for Sports Media Industry Leaders, and winners will be chosen in 11 nominations. In addition to prominent industry leaders, nominees include star athletes that not only achieved success in the arena, but also managed to get the attention of sports fans. They have millions of followers in social networks, popularity online and on television, and they are regularly cited or mentioned in the media. The winner in each nomination will be determined based on an open vote in social networks, as well as marks given by a jury of experts.
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Gazprom Media Match encompasses two nationwide TV channels, 11 specialty channels, 2 websites, the MATCH PREMIER OTT platform and the Match! mobile app.
