PAOK FC disrupted football TV rights in Greece when they rejected a broadcast deal in favour of their own OTT streaming service

In summer 2019, PAOK FC were reflecting on one of their most successful seasons ever.

The club from Thessaloniki had won the Super League Greece for the first time in 34 years without losing a match. They completed the double with the Greek Football Cup, becoming the first team in history to win the league and cup undefeated.

But, when the club began negotiations for a new TV deal with broadcaster Nova, things did not go as they had hoped.

"At the negotiations with Nova we expected and wanted to capitalise the success on the field in the TV contract. Which was not the case as they had it in their minds," says Panagiotis Aroniadis, director of new media at PAOK.

"The offer that we had was maybe even less money than we used to receive and significantly less than the money the Athens-based football clubs (Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, AEK Athens) were receiving without winning any title the previous year."

Disagreed on rights value

This was not the first time the club had disagreed with Nova's valuation of the rights to broadcast their home matches.

Two years previously, in 2017, there were "issues" with the negotiation as Greek football moved from a central, collective negotiation of TV rights, to broadcasters making deals with individual clubs.

"We had started thinking of how to create a backup solution if things didn't work out as we expected or as we wanted," Aroniadis says.

"It was quite premature, but we said 'ok, let's try to create our own platform so if we have any problems, we can broadcast the games ourselves'."

For only €3,000, the club developed PAOK TV, an over-the-top (OTT) platform allowing fans to stream matches.

PAOK eventually agreed a two-year deal with Nova for domestic rights but still launched PAOK TV for international fans, targeting Greek diaspora in countries like the Australia, Germany, the UK and US.

"We signed with Nova but kept the data and rights for abroad and used it to make it easier for our fans to watch the games without having to look for illegal streams," Aroniadis says

"It was like Mission: Impossible"

Fast forward to 2019 and the club had three options. They could accept the offer from Nova that they considered below market value. Or they could give the broadcast rights to the free-to-air channel owned by the club's owner, the billionaire Greek-Russian businessman, Ivan Savvidis, for less money.

"The third option was to reinstate PAOK TV and make it our primary solution," Aroniadis says.

"We opted for that option and, as you can imagine, it was the most difficult one because the decision was taken Tuesday night and we had to broadcast the first game on Sunday night.

"It was something like Mission: Impossible."

With the platform now available to domestic as well as international fans, PAOK TV's small team of "three or four" had to make technical changes immediately. They moved to Amazon Cloud and, after some glitches in the first few matches, the streaming service ran smoothly.

PAOK hired the biggest production company in Greece, with up to 21 cameras used to cover their home matches. They also employed a neutral commentator, well-known in Greek football, to show "we are a club channel, but we are a TV channel".

Fans were offered the choice of an annual subscription or a pay-per-match model, even though the former would have meant more guaranteed income for PAOK.

"We wanted to also serve the away fans who wanted to see their team playing against PAOK at Toumba Stadium," Aroniadis says.

Ultimately, the decision to use PAOK TV for the 2019/20 season was about the club's brand value.

"It was more like a political decision for the strategy of the club because signing for less money than you think you deserve is lowering your brand value," Aroniadis says.

"We wanted to keep our brand value high even if it that meant for the first year of PAOK TV we would lose some money. 
"It was a risk we were willing to take."

Educating fans

While the technology was one challenge, educating fans was another.

The club put out regular step-by-step and troubleshooting guides on their website and social media channels and answered numerous enquiries from fans.

The team spent 45 minutes on the phone with an 83-year-old fan in Australia, for example, explaining how to set up his computer and login to PAOK TV to watch a match.

At the time, PAOK were the only club in Europe managing their own TV rights exclusively and worldwide. Other clubs, though, weren't convinced.

"Everybody thought we were crazy," Aroniadis says.

"We were and we are proud of it. We were crazy enough to do it and, in the end, you have to be crazy to pave your own way in a different direction to find the solution."

That "crazy" decision is now seen as a success.

In its debut season, PAOK TV attracted 200,000 subscribers who paid for at least one pay-per-view match. In the 2020 SportsPro OTT Awards, the channel received the silver medal for best marketing campaign and bronzes for best new platform and platform of the year. The club was competing against global sports brands like LaLiga, the WWE Network and the official channel of the Olympic Games. 

Other clubs, leagues want platforms

One year after PAOK TV launched, domestic rivals Panathinaikos sought advice from PAOK to build their own OTT platform. And, Aroniadis says, at a pre-season meeting between all clubs, PAOK was asked to present on the possibility of creating a platform for the whole league.

"We established ourselves as the pioneers in this industry so the rest of the clubs asked us technologically what we have to do in order to help them develop a platform," Aroniadis says.

"So for us, it's also proof that this project was a success."

Further proof was the offer PAOK TV received from Nova for the 2020/21 season.

"Nova came back after a season where PAOK had not won anything … they offered us double the money that they were offering the previous season in order to get back the rights," says Aroniadis, who had expected PAOK TV revenues to rise about 40 per cent in a second season.

"So one way or the other, either directly or indirectly, PAOK TV was something that brought money to the club.

At the start of this season, Greek clubs discussed returning to a collective broadcast agreement but decided against it. PAOK have signed with Nova for two seasons – the current season and the next – after which clubs are expected to again discuss returning to a collective agreement.

While domestic rights for PAOK's matches have returned to Nova, the club kept hold of international rights and continue to stream matches for overseas fans. PAOK TV also produces short films and other content about the club, with a plan to broadcast academy matches.

Is OTT the future?

Other leagues, including the English Premier League, have discussed developing their own direct-to-consumer platforms. In the short term, though, Aroniadis doesn't see OTT as a viable solution for most clubs in Greece.

"To be honest, I'm not very optimistic about it. In Greece there are the big four clubs and the other clubs are struggling to survive and they depend a lot on TV money," he said.

"So I don't believe that the smaller clubs will have the patience to wait two, three years for this to be established in the market and start earning the money they want to earn.

"If a broadcaster shows up and offers them €1.5 million guaranteed they would take the money and say, 'ok, an OTT platform might be the future but right now I need to not be relegated and pay the players and make transfers'.

"I don't think Greek football is mature enough to wait two or three years. Even the bigger clubs don't want to lose the money a broadcaster offers in order to get more money in three or five years time."

Closer fan connection

In the future, however, Aroniadis believes OTT can bring a closer connection with fans that, ultimately, leads to more monetisation opportunities and revenue for clubs.

"My opinion is that this is something that in the long term can bring you more money if you support it with marketing and sales," he says.

"If you have your own platform, you can engage with your fans directly. You can use your highlights to make the engagement rate of your social media higher, you can drive people from your social media to the OTT platform and the opposite.

"You have the option of managing your own brand as you want, in the way you consider the best."

So, should a future broadcast rights offer fall short of what PAOK expect, would the club be ready to again turn to PAOK TV?

"If you tell me today that tomorrow we need to make PAOK TV the primary broadcaster we are ready," Aroniadis says.

"We know we won't have any problem."