Fox Sports and PlayersVoice.com.au have announced a strategic partnership, as the leading athlete-generated media platform also announces the completion of its Series A capital raising.
MORE: Inside PlayersVoice.com.au with CEO Kerry McCabe
The deal with Fox Sports will include wide-reaching integrations across Fox Sports’ suite of broadcast and digital products and channels. Both companies will work together on their shared vision to further close the gap between sports news and live sport by creating and disseminating premium content for fans, sportspeople and brands across all screens and devices.
In addition to the alliance with Fox Sports and the commitment of a group of Australia’s leading sportspeople as founding shareholders, PlayersVoice has successfully attracted significant capital from returning investors, high net-worth individuals, media specialists and elite sportspeople, all buoyed by the platform’s early consumer and commercial inroads to become the premium athlete-generated media offering in Australia.
Just six months after launch, PlayersVoice has claimed it had made a major impact on the sports media landscape, featuring rich and revealing video, written and podcast content from more than 230 elite sportspeople. That has amounted to an on-platform audience of over 1.8 million users, skewing significantly younger and more female than other digital sporting properties, with an average time per story of over six minutes and over 70 million social impressions.
PlayersVoice CEO Kerry McCabe (pictured) said: “Athlete-generated media is the fastest growing category in sports media globally, with this latest round of investment serving to cement our clear market leadership position, allowing us to build upon a foundation of industry trust and content that has resonated strongly with consumers. As the daily champion of sport, Fox Sports is one of Australia’s most-loved brands and we couldn’t ask for a more aligned partner to join us at this stage in our journey. Our thanks and appreciation go out to the sportspeople, users, brands and investors who have joined the PlayersVoice movement as we deliver on our vision to enrich the soul of Australia’s great obsession – sport.”
Fox Sports chief operating officer Peter Campbell added: “Fox Sports understands Australians’ connection with sport. We know it’s deeper than just our love of the game – it’s about the joy and optimism it brings with it. PlayersVoice aims to create stronger ties between sportspeople and fans through unique storytelling, which is a great extension to the Fox Sports and Foxtel offering. Fans are hungry to learn more and hear from their favourite athletes and this is what PlayersVoice has unearthed. We look forward to building a strong partnership that will deliver unique and engaging content to sports lovers.”