FA Cup sponsor Budweiser “is in discussions” with the English Football Association to stream up to “five preliminary round games in next year's competition" on Facebook, according to sources cited by John Reynolds of MARKETING magazine. Facebook is set to “increase the number of live FA Cup matches it streams during next year's competition, following the success of the first-ever streaming” of a match this year between Ascot United and Wembley FC. Budweiser also brokered the deal between the two teams. Around 30,000 people “viewed the live stream of the game while 1,149 people turned up to watch the game live.” The FA has an “existing broadcast relationship with ITV and ESPN for next year's competition and those matches in the later stages of the Cup are exclusive to those channels” (MARKETINGMAGAZINE.co.uk, 3/1). Facebook also recently announced a deal to carry live ESPN TV coverage of 225 college men's and women's basketball games from conference tournaments (THE DAILY).
ALSO ON THE WEB: The Pac-12 Conference Thursday announced the first eight games of the women’s basketball tournament “will be aired live on YouTube.” The web site will “also feature postgame press conferences from the men's and women's semifinal and final rounds” (AZSTARNET.com, 3/1).
