Barça documentary series ‘Matchday’ premieres on ByteDance video platforms in China

ByteDance, a leading technology company operating a range of content platforms including Douyin (TikTok’s sister app) and Toutiao, will debut ‘Matchday’ on its content platforms in China on June 5. The fly on the wall documentary series created by Barça Studios, includes previously unseen footage of the first team’s day-to-day lives.

Chinese fans can look forward to eight 45-minute episodes centered around eight key games played during the 2018/2019 season. TV cameras were given unprecedented access to the first team’s dressing room and allowed to record everyday moments in the lives of players such as Leo Messi, Luis Suárez, Marc-André ter Stegen, Gerard Piqué, Arthur Melo and Arturo Vidal.

The first episode of ‘Matchday’ will be live streamed on Toutiao at 18:00 (CST) and later broadcast on Douyin and Xigua Video at 20:00 (CST) this Friday. Each subsequent episode will be released individually every Friday, Saturday and Sunday on all three platforms.

‘Matchday’ was originally launched last November 29 in Japan and Europe on the Rakuten TV video-on-demand service and recently launched on Netflix in Latin America and Canada. Previously unavailable in China, fans will now get the chance to follow the football giants through the highs and lows of the 18/19 season.

The series is produced by Barça Studios, which now centralizes all of FC Barcelona’s creation, production and marketing of audiovisual content and is already working on the second season of the series following the team throughout the 2019/2020 season.