How are sports teams using Facebook’s live streaming service?

With Facebook’s live streaming service still very much in its infancy, sports teams and organisations are still configuring how best to use the platform. And they seem to be stuck in a bit of a grey area of whether to use the service to show serious portions of matchday or to use it to show that they don’t take themselves too seriously.

Despite doubts over the longevity of the platform as a form of true fan engagement and whether the long-term ROI justifies the extra investment, it has been interesting to observe how different sports teams have chosen to use it considering its only been available for 6-7 months.

It’s real time feature obviously makes it relatively hard to use as a sports team or organisation looking to stream real-time match content to its viewers without infringing on copyright restrictions, especially when it comes to wanting to show highlights or particular moments of the match.

However, this has acted more as help than a hindrance for sports clubs as its really defined when and how the clubs should be using the platform, for the time being anyhow.

In the case of the French Football team, they’ve taken to Facebook live to give fans a feel of the atmosphere in the stadium as well a taste of the warm-up action.

Échauffement des Bleus avant #FRARUS !

Posted by Équipe de France de Football on Tuesday, 29 March 2016

 

In a stark contrast, the England Rugby team took fans into the dressing room to celebrate winning the 2016 6 Nations and also winning the Grand Slam (unbeaten during the whole tournament). A significant example of being able to show what fans would never see from unofficial sources.

This is a significant example of being able to use the copyright restrictions to the teams advantage and being able to show fans what they definitely wouldn’t see on television.

Billy Vunipola v Backstreet Boys

Backstreet Boys step aside…Billy V's in the house

Posted by England Rugby on Sunday, 20 March 2016

 

Across the Atlantic, the NFL and MLB teams have perhaps been a little more adept to using and determining when to use the platform. This is understandable given it has been available longer in the US. But the Facebook live stream below of veteran NFL quarterback Peyton Manning announcing his retirement shows that it can be used for very important official occasions also…

Peyton Manning announces his retirement from the NFL.

Posted by Denver Broncos on Monday, 7 March 2016

 

However, one of the most successful uses of the service is definitely by college basketball in the US including but not withstanding the NCAA and the March Madness basketball tournament which all boast hugely successful streams.

With at least 18 of the 64 teams streaming via Facebook, the tournament has been able to hugely lift its following as the reach of the videos are immense.

Villanova and Oklahoma take the court! #FinalFour

Posted by NCAA March Madness on Saturday, 2 April 2016

 

A good example of the reach that the service offers is a stream put up of Oregon celebrating winning the Pac-12 Championship which was watched more than 100,000 times and, at its peak, attracted 8,000 viewers. Those numbers may seem small but the total reach of the stream was over 450,000, 10 times the number of people that liked the team’s Facebook page.

Ladies and gentlemen, your Pac-12 Tournament CHAMPIONS!

Posted by Oregon Men's Basketball on Saturday, 12 March 2016

About author

Matt Tewhatu
Matt Tewhatu 155 posts

Matt is the editor of Digital Sport and Chief of Snack Media's rugby division and has a journalistic background both here in UK, Australia and in his native New Zealand. Follow him on Twitter @mtewhatu

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