On Tuesday afternoon, Victory+, the Dallas-based sports streaming network launched in 2024, revealed its total viewership for the Texas high school football state championships.
The network announced that over the four-day event 2.1 million total viewers tuned in. It was the first-time ever that the football state championships were streamed exclusively online for free in Texas.
In a recent interview with the Dallas Morning News, Victory+ chief operating officer Jason Walsh said their target success metric was tripling BallySports Southwest’s 2023 viewership of a quarter million. The network posted on social media that it had passed the one million-viewer mark on Friday.
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“Our goal with Victory+ has always been to put the fans first by making the game accessible to everyone,” said CEO and president Neil Gruninger in a statement to The News. “The unbelievable numbers from the championship games confirms what we’ve always believed, removing barriers drives fandom. By eliminating the paywall, we’ve unlocked a level of engagement that proves free access is the most powerful tool we have to strengthen the bond between a sport and its community.”
High School Sports
According to Victory+, the most-watched game over the week was the Class 6A Division I state title between Duncanville and Galena Park North Shore with a peak audience of 207,320 viewers. The network believes that it was one of the “most-watched high school football games ever distributed via streaming.”
The streaming audience also spanned globally with viewers in Canada, Mexico, Germany, Vietnam, Denmark, Brazil, The Netherlands and Spain.
Walsh revealed that Victory+ has been contacted by other states to stream their football state championship events in the future.
The UIL and Victory+ announced a five-year deal back in June for exclusive rights to the football state championships. UIL athletic director Jamey Harrison cited fan frustrations with cable company disputes with regional sports networks as the primary reason for seeking partnership with Victory+, according to the Sports Business Journal.
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Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.