Facebook considering live sports broadcasts
October 24, 2017
Colin Mann @ Sportel
Facebook is actively looking at the possibility of broadcasting live sports content via its Facebook Live service, according to its global head of Strategic Partner Development – Sports Media, Rob Shaw.
Speaking at a Sportel Tech Panel session on Social Video, Shaw told delegates that the recent introduction of the Facebook Live service had altered the dynamics of its relationships with sporting rights holders. “Our relationships and conversations have certainly changed over the last couple or six months,” he said.
“Facebook is a phenomenal place to reach large audiences and we are now looking into and testing the possibility of actually broadcasting live sport content. It’s going to be a huge learning curve for us, for broadcasters, media companies, the leagues, because it’s not telephones, it’s different. It’s interactive, it’s social, it’s not a one-way conversation,” he added.
“So these are the things that we’re trying to work together with the leagues and gain their feedback on data and consumption so that we can understand what we can build in the future.”