The Russian Premier Liga will become the first major league in the world to use YouTube’s ‘memberships’ as the main distribution channel of their rights outside of the home market. All eight RPL fixtures each matchday will be available to viewers outside Russia and CIS in countries where ‘memberships’ is activated.

Evgeny Savin, Marketing Director of RPL, commented on the new partnership with Google: "We believe this partnership with YouTube is an opportunity for RPL to reach our fans living outside of Russia, as well as expand the existing fan base around the world”.

There will be two membership levels for the viewers outside Russia. The first level includes two matches with English commentary each matchday and will cost a monthly fee of $2.99. The second level, for $4.99 a month, gives subscribers access to all eight matches in Russian and two matches with English commentary as well.

Pavel Suvorov, Commercial Director of RPL, revealed the goals of the new agreement. "Our partnership with Google is an up-and-coming project," he commented. "We are looking into the promising prospect of launching our own OTT service or implementing it on the partner side for an international audience. Regarding this matter agreement with Google is an important step in implementing our plans, researching audience preferences, its sensitivity to the price and extent of conversion"

Till the end of the season, all matches will have full commentary in Russian, while two key fixtures will also have commentary in English each matchday. FC Rostov vs CSKA Moscow and Spartak Moscow vs FC Krasnodar have been selected for English commentary next weekend for Matchday 21.

"All last year we broadcasted the Russian Premier Liga on YouTube with a clean feed. We analyzed data, collected user reviews, and recorded the growing interest of viewers in matches. This year we decided to go further and improve the quality of the product," said Leonid Shlykov, Head of Digital projects at RPL, about the changes in broadcasting.

All members will also have access to a weekly Matchday review show in English. Highlights of all games will remain free.