Football Victoria CEO Peter Filopoulos said that the new NPL.TV streaming service proves that Australia has a ‘massive appetite’ for live football, speaking in a live interview with SBS The World Game on Wednesday afternoon.
SBS The World Game journalist Lucy Zelić asked Peter Filopoulos a question raised by Greek Herald writer Peter Oglos, regarding NPL Victoria potentially joining the NPL.TV streaming service.
“We were part of the drive of that strategy initially, that broadcasting strategy because we were keen to elevate the status of the NPL and the NPL clubs, and to attract the eyeballs to our competition,” the Football Victoria CEO says.
“We are committed to the NPL.TV and have decided to let NSW and QLD launch it in the first instance so we can monitor the situation.”
The NPL.TV streaming service was launched in March this year for NPL NSW and NPL QLD, allowing for the free viewing of all NPL Men’s and Women’s competitions.
Filopoulos stressed that the streaming service is “enormous”, believing it to be one day part of a crucial “football fraternity”.
“I think this is where we need to be going, which is creating our own content platforms and distribution model, because there is a massive appetite for football,” Filopoulos says.
Despite recognising its immense potential, Filopoulos confirmed that joining the NPL.TV streaming platform is not in the Victorian Football Federation’s direct line of vision. The Football Victoria CEO added that they will continue to stream through Facebook and Youtube, until “certain questions” regarding the streaming service are addressed.
“We’re not quite ready to transition away from those platforms into this new NPL.TV, and we’ve got some certain questions that we want answered and want to monitor before we also join the NPL.TV platform,” Filopoulos adds.
All NPL and grassroots football competitions were suspended on March 17, almost one week after NPL.TV was announced.
“It is very regrettable that grassroots football will not proceed for the next month, but as a good and responsible citizen, we recognise that our game of approximately 1.96 million participants, has a significant role to play in slowing the spread of the virus,” FFA Chief Executive Officer James Johnson said.
