Last week we reported that Budweiser UK were going to live stream the FA Cup game between Ascot United and Wembley FC via their Facebook page.  This was part of their FA Cup sponsorship after they took over from precious incumbents E.ON.

What was debateable was how it was going to look and how much notice people would take of it.  Well as it turns out, quite a lot.  The PR that this new venture gained had a double benefit it seems with not only people tuning in online to watch the game but more people than usual took notice of the game and turned up to the ground as well.

The hard facts are that 1,149 people turned up to the stadium in Ascot (a great result for the club) and over 20,000 people tuned in to Facebook to watch the game online.  This could have been seen as a gamble by the FA and Budweiser UK as this had not been tried before and the game itself was not one that would usually get a huge amount of interest.

Budweiser marketing director Ian Newell said: “Budweiser is committed to bringing the world’s most prestigious knockout competition closer to the fans. What better way to demonstrate this than by broadcasting the very first kick to a global audience via Facebook.”

Could this be the start of something bigger for clubs?  Many rely on commercial TV income but if you are in one of the lower divisions and the dream of your Sky or ESPN millions is a long way off then live streaming through an owned site may be a realistic option.  Yes there is investment in cameras and equipment to make it possible but once that has been achieved then you just need a site to run it through.

This could be via Facebook or the club website but what a great way to ensure fans can tune in no matter where they are and open clubs up to a new audience.  There would also be sponsorship doors opened as with this new exposure then there are more opportunities to get company names (and adverts) to the audience.

It is not a new idea, squash has been doing it for years via their subscription online TV channel where fans can tune in from anywhere in the world.  Other sports such as Table Tennis have been playing with a similar idea around specific leading events.

We look forward to seeing who will take the next step on this.  Will Budweiser and The FA continue with this through the competition or will another team or sport make this work for them?