Facebook won the rights to screen La Liga matches across the Indian subcontinent in a deal that will "allow hundreds of millions of south Asian users to watch top-tier Spanish football matches for free," according to Murad Ahmed of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The social network agreed to a deal to broadcast La Liga over the next three seasons in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives. La Liga hailed the deal as a "one of a kind" agreement, with matches shown free-to-air in the region, "giving it greater reach in the subcontinent" and in particular to Facebook’s estimated 270 million users in India. Facebook "displaces Sony, which previously had live screening rights to La Liga matches in the subcontinent," having reportedly paid a total of $32M from '14-18. Financial details of Facebook’s deal with La Liga were not released, but one person familiar with the deal said that Facebook would pay between €10M ($11.35M) and €20M ($22.69M) (FT, 8/14). REUTERS' Richard Martin reported Facebook Dir of Global Live Sports Peter Hutton described the deal with La Liga as "an experiment." While saying that the company has other agreements in the works, "he ruled out an immediate land grab of rights deals in sport." Hutton: "We're looking at a few other deals that are quite close to completion but this is not about going out and buying a huge amount of content worldwide." Facebook’s monitoring system "will prevent against leakage," ensuring only viewers inside the Indian subcontinent will be able to watch the games on its platform. The games will "initially be shown without any adverts," although Hutton said that Facebook is "doing trials in advertising on live content" in the U.S., which may be replicated on its La Liga coverage "at a later date." He said, "This is one deal, it’s not something that is a big threat to the broadcast world" (REUTERS, 8/13).
MAKING HISTORY: BROADBAND TV NEWS' Robert Briel reported La Liga will be the first European football league to be broadcast exclusively live on Facebook in the subcontinent. La Liga Head of Digital Strategy Alfredo Bermejo said, "For us, India is one of our most important markets and Facebook is one of our most important and traditional partners in the digital world. We want to reach out to the biggest audience with the biggest platform possible." Facebook will also provide analysis of the matches by commentators including former Real Madrid defender Míchel Salgado and former Barcelona and Atlético Madrid midfielder Luis García (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 8/14).
