Facebook has "ruled out making a dash for media rights in its bid to successfully monetise its fast-growing live streaming audience," according to Seb Joseph of THE DRUM. Buying the rights to "the world’s biggest sports would be an enormous shift for the social network." As a business it is "an advertising platform first and foremost but were it to buy the rights to Premier League matches or NBA games" then it would have more similarities with a media owner. Facebook Sports Partnership Head Dan Reed, who "seems aware" that people are not necessarily ready to watch a whole football match on Facebook, said, "I don't see us actively bidding for rights." But that does not mean the company will not "ever pay for sports rights." Reed is "quick to claim that the business is experimenting" with a "wide variety of live video content types," with it already "opting out of snapping up the streaming rights to NFL games earlier this year." When discussing monetization plans for Facebook Live, Reed cited its revamped "Branded Content Policy" as one potential avenue. It is "now easier for verified Facebook Pages, which are increasingly owned by sporting brands, to share branded content, something previously banned under the previous policy." Traditional broadcasters alone cannot "satisfy the appetite of the modern sports fan and Facebook knows it." Rather than "plough millions into battling for rights to flagship events, the social network seems content to bide its time and strike deals with broadcasters like Sky Sports as and when they arise." One area broadcasters "will look to test Facebook’s resolve is in its willingness to share data in exchange for content." BT Sport and La Liga have "already stressed its importance in turning what would effectively be them losing money on rights if they were to be streamed to the likes of Facebook and Google into a data buy." Like its peers, "Facebook is reluctant to share rich data with partners for fear of user privacy, though anonymised data is factored into all deals with its partners" (THE DRUM, 6/10).
