Facebook secures streaming rights to Premier League

The Premier League has agreed to its first broadcast deal with the social media giant Facebook, winning exclusive rights to show live matches in large parts of Asia from 2019.

Facebook is understood to have beaten BeIn Sports and Fox Sports Asia in the auction to gain live broadcast rights in a deal worth about US$265 million.

All 380 premier league games played each season will be broadcast in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from 2019 to 2022.

The Premier League’s deal with Facebook in Asia will serve as further evidence that the league is keen to appeal to streaming services as well as traditional broadcasters.

Facebook is increasingly looking to tap into the sports streaming market, recently hiring Eurosport chief executive Peter Hutton to head up its global live sports programming division, with a brief to increase the platform’s sports offering.

In January, the World Surf League renewed its partnership with Facebook in what they called a “game-changing” deal to be the exclusive digital provider for all major WSL events in 2018 and 2019.

The terms of the deal called for the social media giant to stream all elite men’s and women’s Championship Tour events, Qualifying Series 10,000 and Big Wave Tour contests, and the World Junior Championships.

This comes off the back of the company making a play for rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket last year with a US$600 million bid.