Turner Sports’ Play ON adds to its subscription sites with the launch today of USL Live ; the first game streams Friday. That’s USL as in United Soccer League; it joins ACCSelect.com, a site dedicated to the NCAA conference’s sports that usually aren’t aired. David Levy, president of Turner Sports, told SBJ(sub. req.) the sub sites are part of the third part of a tiered digital strategy: Tier 1, the sports Turner broadcasts (PGA.com, NASCAR.com, TNT Overtime for NBA.com); Tier 2, sites for events Turner doesn’t carry (PGA Tour); Tier 3, subscription sites for sports or leagues that aren’t usually broadcast. The fees are the same as ACCSelect.com: $49.99 for the year (the VIP pass limited-time offer), $9.99 a month, $3.99 a match. Levy wouldn’t say how many subs its needs to be successful, only that he wants to see an upward trend. No rights fee is involved—it’s a straight rev share with Turner providing the back-end and marketing and USL content and venues. The site has Umbro as a sponsor. Release.
—Turner says the ACC site is seeing sub increases of 40 percent a week. The site has streamed 600-plus events since launch last fall.
—Levy says the potential for future sites is “any sport that has a built-in audience base that you won’t typically see on TV.”
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