YouTube Premium, the subscription service formerly known as YouTube Red, is going into business with sports-centric digital network Whistle Sports.
A travel soccer series called F2 Finding Football will debut on the $12 monthly service on June 13 — just in time for the World Cup, which kicks off the following day. F2 Finding Football will follow London-based YouTube duo F2 (Billy Wingrove and Jeremy Lynch) — who are renowned for their soccer tricks and tips videos — as they voyage across the globe to learn how different locales affect athletes’ styles of play. The series will fuse culture, community, and sport, according to YouTube, with stops in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Iceland, France, and Thailand.
Whistle Sports, which reps The F2 Freestylers, will produce the series, and it will air on the duo’s YouTube channel, which counts 7.6 million subscribers and 1.3 billion lifetime views.
“At YouTube, we are continuing to invest in incredible European creators and the stories they want to share with the whole world,” said Luke Hyams, YouTube’s recently-appointed head of originals, EMEA. “The series also gives The F2 the opportunity to show off their incredible skills (or tekkers) as never before in some incredible locations around the world.”
YouTube Premium is currently only available in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and South Korea, though YouTube says it’s rolling out the service — as well as more internationally-sourced programming — to a large swath of additional countries in 2018. F2 Finding Football marks YouTube’s second soccer-themed original series, arriving on the heels of Training Days — which debuted on May 9, and saw soccer stars and internet celebrities (including F2) attempt zany challenges off the field.
“As Whistle Sports continues to grow and increases its push into longer-form, premium content,” added the company’s VP of content, J. LaLonde, “it’s exciting to introduce this series that embodies the values of our younger audience: positivity, creativity, humor, and skill.”
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