NFL's Thursday Night Football could soon be broadcast on Facebook
Facebook, is in talks with the NFL to acquire the digital broadcast rights to Thursday night Football.
A string of major players including Apple, Amazon, Google and Verizon are interesting in the deal however Facebook is reportedly leading the pack.
In a recent interview with Variety the company’s vice president of partnerships, Dan Rose, confirmed that it was in talks with the NFL over the live streaming rights to the league’s Thursday night games.
Facebook is also reportedly interested in creating original content around games such as locker room footage and behind-the-scenes action.
Rose touched on this in the interview when he said there were “a lot of interesting things we can do with sports, there are a lot of different cuts you can imagine.”
Last month, CBS and NBC announced a $450m deal to broadcast Thursday Night Football on TV and its digital platforms. If Facebook lands the digital rights to the Thursday fixtures it would stream either CBS or NBC’s play by play.
The acquisition would be significant addition to Facebook’s live streaming capabilities and would help the world’s largest social media platform remain relevant and while also offering something different amid growing competition. Facebook could also expect a major boost in its ad revenue as a result of the huge audience numbers.