Irish pay-TV sports broadcaster Premier Sports has announced a new partnership with LOITV, the OTT sports service of top-flight soccer competition the League of Ireland (LOI).
Through the deal, Premier Sports will craft a new LOI-centric content platform that will bring LOITV to a larger number of distribution points across Android and Apple mobile devices, tablets, computers, internet TV services such as Chromecast, and on smart TVs.
It will stream every single fixture from the LOI, the second-tier First Division, and the women’s top-flight Premier Division.
In addition, it will show select fixtures from the men’s and women’s FAI Cup knockout competitions, the season-opening men’s and women’s super cup competitions (known as the President’s Cup), and the women’s All-Island Cup (which encompasses Northern Irish sides too).
The platform will launch in November 2024, ahead of the 2025 LOI season, which will run from February through November 2025, and will offer multiple paid subscription tiers depending on time-frame including full-year, monthly, and 24-hour subscription access.
Speaking on the announcement, Sean Kavanagh, president of Irish soccer’s FAI governing body, stated: “This is a very exciting partnership with a best-in-class OTT provider in Premier Sports which will allow LOITV to go to another level.
“LOITV has grown every year and the expertise from Premier Sports will enable the platform to become much more accessible for League of Ireland fans and help grow the fanbase even further.
“The new subscription models will also provide excellent value for all League of Ireland supporters catering for everyone and with the platform becoming available through a range of apps and via Smart TV, we look forward to growing LOITV together with Premier Sports over the next number of years.”
This partnership is a first for Premier Sports, which operates its own service across Ireland and the UK, but has never before opened its OTT service up to customers looking to launch their own platforms.
Premier Sports head of product Brian Stenson added: “We are delighted to be working with LOITV on this new streaming partnership. This is an important milestone for our business as we make available our in-house OTT products and knowledge to partners for the first time.
“Combining Premier Sports' experience in the sports broadcast and streaming industry with the excitement of League of Ireland means we will bring more live events, more platforms to watch on, and more value to League of Ireland fans than ever before."
LOITV was initially launched ahead of the 2021 season, off the back of the WatchLOI service that launched during the Covid-19 enforced lockdown that saw matches played behind closed doors.
