Manchester United pulls in football fans stretching from the UK to the UAE. No matter where fans are in the world, the support is die hard, with a passion for Man United content just as deep. The club has played over 1,000 games in the past 30 years in the English Premier League alone. Add to this years of player interviews, documentaries, behind-the-scenes exclusives and all the live action and you’ve got a substantial archive any MUFC fan would celebrate. 

MUTV is Manchester United’s streaming service, where fans can access the club’s archive of football content, as well as watch live coverage during each and every pre-season match. It’s also an exclusive window into the inner workings of the club, with behind-the-scenes access and player profiles.

We originally launched MUTV back in 2018 as native apps, on Apple TV, Fire TV, Xbox One and Roku. Back then, we went through our tried and tested approach of combining user research, UX, design and development with cross-team client collaboration but every successful project should maintain constant iteration over time. That’s why Manchester United came back to us for help expanding MUTV to new platforms, with a change of business tactic in tow.

A new look for a new season

In seasons gone by, MUTV was a paid subscription service with revenue as the main focus. Now, Manchester United aimed to change its direction, moving to a focus on global reach with a free subscription in most countries instead (excluding around 12 territories). To do this, it needed a refresh – an expansion onto next-gen smart TVs, including LG, Samsung and Android TV, and an app relaunch built as React Native and React Native for Web apps. On top of this, we would add a suite of new features to improve user experience and retention.

We kicked off with a total visual overhaul for a modern design, creating a new homepage for different content types like episodes, shows and collections. We also created ‘show pages’ to bring all its episodes together in one place whereas before users could only look in detail at individual episodes. Every fan wants to find their favourite goal, right? So we added search functionality to scour the archive, as well as a bookmark feature for saving the shows or episodes that tug on a supporter’s heartstrings over and over again.

With MUTV’s visual transformation in progress, we turned our attention to what was in the dugout. 

A game of two halves

To bring MUTV onto new apps, we rewrote the application with React Native, reducing the need for separate dev teams across each platform and saving time and cost for the client. This is because with React Native a single codebase can be used across multiple platforms, whilst also making maintenance far more streamlined. React Native also gave us access to hot reloading, where dev teams can see their changes in real-time without needing to rebuild the app. With client needs always at the heart of what we do, it’s much faster for us, and much faster for them.

 

Each target platform for MUTV had its own unique technical specs, so our team needed to be sure it would work seamlessly across all of them, every time. It might sound straightforward if you’re using a single codebase in React Native but TV manufacturers are notoriously slow at adapting to new technology. When we came to work on building the app for smart TVs this became blatantly obvious, with models older than 2020 working off a different type of code. We used Babel to transcribe the code from ES6 to ES5 for these models, as well as taking into account remote input handling, proprietary APIs, key codes on remote controls changing every year and even unsupported cookies (on LG). Pack all this up and then add the difference between actual manufacturers, not just the models, and you can start to understand the complexity of the project – despite using React Native.

Firmly in the premier league

Once testing and troubleshooting had been completed – itself a chunky piece of work between TV make and models – MUTV was brought to market. 

Since then, it’s been downloaded in over 240 territories, hitting number one in the app store’s sports category in over 100 countries. MUTV is one of the most subscribed football channels in the whole of the UK and now, with its new look, a seamless, high-quality user experience with nothing left on the pitch.