Rakuten launches channel with original sports docs

As the Olympics get underway, Rakuten TV is launching Rakuten Stories, a channel with a focus on original sports documentary films.

The free, ad-supported, linear channel features original documentaries including Andrés Iniesta – The Unexpected Hero, BVB 09 – Stories who we are, Break Point: A Davis Cup Story, Ride Your Dream, The Secrets of La Roja, The Australian Dream, Inside Killian Jornet, Sadio Mané – Made in Senegal, and Serge Ibaka – Anything is Possible.

It will also be home to The Giants, a three parter from Neo Studios, which follows the careers of Konishiki, Musashimaru, Takamiyama and Akebono – sumo legends who rose from humble beginnings in Hawaii to become the first foreigners to reach the highest ranks of the sport.

Coming soon to Rakuten Stories is Ona Carbonell: Starting Over, directed by Adán Bonet, which follows the Olympic synchronized swimmer as she returns to the pool after starting a family, and Champions, which meets some of the heroes across generations in women’s football, including Alexia Putellas, Wendie Renard and Lucy Bronze.

The Rakuten TV platform has a reach of over 90 million households across Europe. Rakuten TV original sports documentaries are popular with a 30-50-year-old, male skewing demographic. Televisual