Facebook gets exclusive digital content rights for ICC global events in Indian sub-continent
Facebook will carry a range of digital content across four years including match recaps, in-play key moments, and other match and feature content.
Social media behemoth Facebook has signed a four year partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC), to become the exclusive digital content rights partner for ICC global events in the Indian subcontinent.
The partnership will also enable Facebook to also carry post-match recaps throughout the rest of the world, through to 2023.
Apart from post-match recaps, Facebook will carry a range of digital content, including match in-play key moments and other match and feature content. This will give cricket fans in the region the opportunity to deepen their engagement with the sport with more content available than ever before.
Commenting on the partnership, 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. The combination of one of the world’s most watched sports with one of the world’s largest platforms is exciting for the future of our game.
“Throughout the competitive bid process, we received tremendous interest from a range of platforms, all of whom recognise 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,” added Manu.
In August this year, ICC had released the final digital content viewing figures for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019.
Video content across ICC digital platforms delivered over 3.6 billion views with a further one billion views coming via ICC’s official digital clips licensees.
The event also saw record numbers on Twitter and Instagram with a number of videos reaching more than three million views. The official ICC YouTube channel saw 2.3 billion minutes of tournament content viewed. Whilst on Facebook, there were over 1.2 billion minutes of content watched, with over 10 billion impressions and over 68 million engagements.
Adding on the partnership, Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, 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. Everyday, people come to our platforms to talk about, and form friendships around, cricket. With this partnership, we will be able to serve these fans with the kind of premium content that can ignite new conversations, new connections and new followership,” added Ajit.
(Edited by Megha Reddy)
