On Thursday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that they have inked a deal with the social media giant Facebook for the exclusive digital content rights partner for its global events in the Indian sub-continent.
As part of the agreement, Facebook will carry a range of digital content including post-match recaps, in-play key moments and other feature content for a period of four years (2019-2023). The agreement includes all major ICC events such as T20 World Cup 2020, World Cup 2021, World Test Championship, T20 World Cup qualifier events and U19 cricket World Cup scheduled to be held in 2020 and 2022.
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Describing the same, the ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney said, “We are delighted to welcome Facebook to the global cricket family for this multi-year, multi-market partnership which is a first for our sport. Throughout the competitive bid process, we received tremendous interest from a range of platforms, all of whom recognize the phenomenal reach of cricket. In Facebook, we have a genuine partner who shares in our ambition to continue to grow and deepen engagement with cricket fans globally using its platforms.”
The collaboration builds on the content sharing partnership ICC has progressed with Facebook along with other social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube during the 2019 ICC World Cup. Facebook gained a viewership of 4.6 billion views on #CWC19 videos across ICC’s digital and social media platforms.
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Ajit Mohan, vice-president and managing director at Facebook India said, “We are excited to partner with the ICC to bring the most exciting moments in cricket to Facebook Watch and to chart the next stage of technology-led transformation in cricket. With Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the ICC has an exceptional opportunity to leverage our family of apps to serve current sports fans as well as bring in an entirely new generation of fans. The future of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is being charted by Facebook and we are excited about the possibility of bringing the best of our innovations to fans around the world.”
Facebook was the focus on the streaming rights of key sports events globally. In 2017, the social network made a $610 million bid for local streaming rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), but it outbid by Star India which bagged both digital and television for $2.55 billion for half a decade.
