England's Football Association and Budweiser have reached an agreement to show Friday's Ascot United-Wembley FC FA Cup qualifying round match on Facebook, making it the "first match ever to be broadcast live on the site," according to Mike Collett of REUTERS. Budweiser U.K. Dir of Marketing Iain Newell said that his company, the new title sponsor of the FA Cup, was “intent on taking soccer’s oldest competition back to global pre-eminence, and at the same time, take it back to the fans.” Collett reports both teams will be paid “nominal broadcast fees for the match.” An FA spokesperson said there are currently "no plans" to show other matches in the qualifying competition on Facebook, but it "could happen up until the first round stage when the broadcasting contract between the FA, ITV and ESPN comes into operation” (REUTERS, 8/17). MARKETING magazine's John Reynolds reports the Ascot-Wembley game can stream on Facebook because "preliminary round FA Cup matches do not have broadcasting rights holders.” ITV and ESPN are the “broadcast rights holders for this year’s competition, and will screen matches once the first round begins” (MARKETINGMAGAZINE.co.uk, 8/17). The GUARDIAN's Mark Sweney reports the live stream of the match “will be made available via an application built into US brewer’s UK Facebook page.” Budweiser said that the match “will only be available to those of legal drinking age." Viewers must be “18 and over and have ‘liked’ Budweiser’s Facebook page to gain access to the free live stream.” Facebook indicated that the “live stream is not sponsored by, endorsed by, administered by or associated with the social networking website” (GUARDIAN, 8/17).
