The football streaming repertoire will be augmented come the start of August. Amazon Prime will offer all fans and interested viewers another series, following the success of All Or Nothing: Manchester City. The six-part experience This Is Football is about to lure many more people to the service and will entertain by reproducing stunning moments and heartwarming stories from the world of football. The sport has always been a big part of the entertainment industry, but is merging increasingly with digital experiences like streaming, social media or even podcasts. Users and consumers want stories – and football tells the best of them sometimes.
This Is Football: Allusion and Promise
From August 2nd, fans across the world will be able to watch Amazon’s new series that, as the title suggests, is solely focused on football. There will be six one hour episodes of This Is Football – for the start. Because that series is bound to be successful and should get another season rather sooner than later. Amazon have understood that this sport is so all-embracing, it’s a source for engagement and consumption in the media world. Especially in our new, nearly totally digitised media world. For even if you’re not an Amazon Prime member, but really want to see the series, it’s only a few clicks and you’ll be able to watch, once you subscribed. Football fans want to be entertained, but since their teams are only playing once or twice a week, they need to look elsewhere for more and more content. That’s why social media accounts of all the clubs are producing content without a break. And it might be one reason why entities like 433 or Copa90 have risen meteorically.
Particularly in the summer, when the season is only about to restart soon, football fans are craving some new content. And if it’s of outstanding quality, it’s only going to get a lot of viewers. This Is Football from Amazon promises a lot.
The trailer tells you that it’s about the bigger picture of the sports. For the voice from the off says:
Football is emotion, it comes from the heart. It crosses all barriers, you play football anywhere. Football can actually help bring communities together.
And so the series focuses on the linking element of the sports. Therefore, not only big moments or developments in football will be portrayed, but also the meaning of it. Take for example Iceland’s incredible European Championship campaign in 2016 and how it united the country in joy and expectation, how it brought all those players and their everyday life to the attention of millions of people watching. And how it introduced the Viking Clap in football forever.
But the series will also show the phenomenon Messi or the ‘shocking’ moment of Brandi Chastain in 1999. Central topics will be:
- redemption
- faith
- chances
- love
- pride
- miracles
It’s also important to mention that This Is Football tells about men and women in football. Sports Author John Carlin (Invictus) wrote the series, which will directed by reknowned directors like James Erskine. Lorne Balfe, who has won Grammys and Emmys and has worked on Mission Impossible: Fallout, The Queen or Chirchill, will produce the music. That’s a reminder of how much Amazon is turning this series into entertainment. The title alone is an allusion to media: remember the movie 300 by Zack Snyder and Gerard Butler’s cry: This is Sparta? It was a movie made from a comic strip and very much about aesthetics; the football series on Amazon might be as well. Incidentally, there also was a computer game called This Is Football in the early 2000s.
Football as the most popular sport in the world?
If you look at all the countries, football could easily be the most popular sports globally. That’s what the executive producer of the series, Joe Roth, thinks:
The series is a fantastic collection of stories that provide first explanations why football is the most popular sport in the world.
Well, apart from that, it certainly is a profitable sport and one that provides stories, which can successfully be monetised if put in the right high-quality context. Amazon didn’t need something new, but they put it into a new context, a new world. The best evidence might be that This Is Football is a Starbucks Production in cooperation with Amazon Studios. Adam Bullmore, managing director of executive October Films und executive producer for This Is Football, mentions:
Football is a universal language. Everywhere you look, this sport touches lives and inspires people in a remarkable way. We are excited to partner with Amazon Studios and Starbucks to tell these stories to a worldwide audience.
The worldwide audience is there to watch. We are excited and will see whether it is as good as its word.