On Friday, the CFL announced that the 2024 Combine from Winnipeg Soccer Federation North in Winnipeg, Manitoba, will air for free on CFL Plus. CFL introduced CFL Plus last season where fans got to watch regular season games plus the playoffs for free that were not on CBS Sports Network, which aired 34 games.
At the time, many fans in the United States felt the CFL Plus was a step down considering the league had partnered with ESPN for several years. They were able to watch all the games plus the playoffs on all ESPN networks and ESPN+.
In December, I wrote how the CFL Plus was a success which introduced fans to the game. They were able to watch 47 regular season games plus the playoffs including the 110th Grey Cup from Hamilton which saw the Montreal Alouettes beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28-24.
In the article, I mention that the CFL needed to partner with a company to develop an app that people could access on Fire TV, Roku, Chromecast, and other streaming devices instead of watching the games only on their computers and tablets.
While making an app to satisfy the fans is a challenge, what if the CFL added CFL Plus to their YouTube channel? The CFL’s YouTube channel features game recaps, interviews, highlights, and more. The CFL currently has 57.5 K subscribers. The benefit of adding CFL Plus to their YouTube channel is fans would have access to live games during the season from their television screens, along with their phones, tablets, and computers.
In addition, the league would not have to develop an app. The work is already done for them with YouTube having their app available for all streaming services. YouTube is the king of streaming services and is viewed by 933.39 million people as of 2024 according to Statista.
However, we know that for the league to succeed in the future, they will have to eventually start charging to watch live games. In the future, the CFL Plus could be a subscription plan that would allow people to watch live games. Furthermore, they could also include pre-and post-game shows, CFL Wired on TSN, and let fans watch classic games from the past seasons.
Many sports leagues are using a subscription service on their YouTube channels. For example, the Repco Supercars Championship charges $7.45 to watch all of the live races throughout the season, and the NFL moved Sunday Ticket to YouTube charging $449 for the season.
Of course, the CFL cannot outprice themselves like the NFL, but if they charged $4.99 a month, I think you would see a lot of fans subscribe to the CFL Plus service. For now, the league should move the CFL Plus to YouTube and give the fans a free sample until they are ready to start charging for the live content.
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