One of the world’s most popular soccer clubs has finally launched its own YouTube channel.
Manchester United’s official YouTube presence has been a long time coming, with the club becoming the last in England’s top-flight Premier League to get one sorted.
Subscribers are promised plenty of original content, including “unique behind-the-scenes access” to its famous Old Trafford ground, as well as exclusive player features, and all the latest goals and match action. The intro video (above) features some of the team’s top players, with coach José Mourinho even finding time to make a brief appearance.
The channel will also take fans inside the club’s world-renowned academy, and post videos highlighting some of the team’s legendary players and classic matches from its long and illustrious history.
According to YouTube, United has for a long time been the most-watched sports club on the streaming site, even without an official channel.
Just a few days after launch, the club’s new YouTube channel has already picked up 360,000 subscribers and its 100 videos have so far been viewed 4.5 million times. While results on the pitch are of course the priority, you can bet that United will still be keen to score more subscribers than the current top-performing soccer club on YouTube, Barcelona, which has gathered 3.8 million followers over the last 12 years. Manchester United currently has 71 million Facebook followers, so there’s plenty of expectation with its new, official YouTube effort.
Up to now, United supporters have been able to get their off-the-field fix via the club’s MUTV pay-TV channel, but the YouTube presence is seen as a way to grow the club’s brand and reach more of the youth market around the world.
A spokesperson for Manchester United told the Guardian that its ambition is to become “the largest and most engaged sports club in the world. Our presence on platforms such as YouTube will allow us to achieve this vision.”
They added that the streaming site will give the club an opportunity to “evolve our demographics, as well as provide us with analytics and insights to feed not only our media and content plans but other cross-club initiatives.”
