Sky can target massive sports fanbase with live
REUTERS/Toby Melville
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British telecom giant Sky plans to deliver behind-the-scenes content from its news and sports programming on Facebook Live, as revealed by digital director Lucien Bowater in a company blog post.
Sky is widely recognized for its coverage of the English Premier League (EPL), which features high-profile soccer personalities — such as retired players and coaches — as pundits. The EPL broadcasts to 225 territories and is the most watched football league worldwide, according to the league's website. Over its 10-month duration, the EPL drew in a total audience of 3 billion people across 730 million homes. In addition, there are 780 million EPL club supporters, 930 million EPL followers, and 1.2 billion EPL fans worldwide, according to Repucom data.
Evidently, EPL content is highly sought-after and has an enormous and engaged audience, which is an attractive proposition for advertisers. By broadcasting this content on Facebook Live, Sky is opening a new channel on which to lure ad dollars. Aside from this, broadcasting on Live might pan out to be an effective method to drive usage for Facebook Live and subscriptions for Sky's 'On Demand' services, which include its Now TV and Sky Go offerings.
Aside from the EPL, Sky has the broadcast rights to Spain’s soccer league, La Liga, and a vast expanse of other sports, including Rugby Union and Rugby League, Formula One, The US Open and ATP World Tour, major golfing tournaments including The Masters and PGA Tour, the WWE, and many others. All of this represents a potentially enormous amount of sports content — and thus a potentially enormous audience — that both Sky and Facebook could tap into on Live going forward.
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