Caribbean Premier League to broadcast matches on Facebook Live
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To make you even less productive on social media than you already are (as if that were possible) the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will be broadcasting all 34 matches of the ongoing Twenty20 tournament, live on Facebook. The games will be broadcasted via Grabyo, Facebook’s official live streaming partner.
Grabyo, a U.K. based startup company, founded in 2013, is trying to revolutionize the way we watch sports. Using cloud-based technology, Grabyo takes live video and cuts it into segments. After these segments are cut and edited, ads from brand sponsors are added to the clips. The clips are then played out seamlessly on websites and social media platforms in real time.
Regarding this deal, the Caribbean Premier League issued a statement: “CPL will become the first sports league to supplement its existing broadcast deals and use the Facebook Live platform to ensure that 40 countries around the world, including the likes of Pakistan, South Africa and The Philippines, can now view the biggest party in sport live.”
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“We now have the platform to boost our viewership even further for the forthcoming tournament,” said CPL chief operations officer Pete Russel. “On Wednesday night the CPL will make television history and in doing so extend our reach to both traditional and nontraditional cricket followers across the world. We are hugely excited about this development and look forward to engaging more followers internationally.”
Though it’s the first live broadcast of its kind for cricket, other sports and social media platforms are reaching into the live broadcast game as well. Earlier this year, soccer star Alex Morgan live broadcasted an opener between her team, the Orlando Pride, and the Houston Dash on her Facebook page. Morgan’s live broadcast was the first-ever game to be broadcast on the site.
However, Facebook isn’t the only social media platform dipping their toes into live broadcasting. In April this year, Twitter signed a deal with the National Football League to stream 10 Thursday night games during the 2016 season.
Not to be left out of the conversation, in 2010, YouTube signed a deal with the Indian Premier League, bringing in more than 55 million visits from 250 countries. BT Sport, owner of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, recently signed a deal with YouTube and broadcasted the finals for both leagues in May.
Although TV rights still make up the vast majority of revenue for any given sport, it’s clear there’s a revolutionary shift happening in the way sports are being viewed.
