Facebook has beaten Sony for rights to stream matches of Spain's top football league in the Asian subcontinent — for free. The deal marks the company's latest foray into online sports streaming.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O. del Pozo
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Facebook will stream games from Spain's top football division La Liga in the Asian subcontinent for free, according to an exclusive deal announced on Tuesday.
Viewers in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be able to watch every game over the next three seasons.
"We are really happy to be on a free-to-air service in such an important territory as the Indian subcontinent," Alfredo Bermejo, La Liga's head of digital strategy, told Reuters news agency ahead of the announcement.
"One of our goals for the last two years has been to offer content to the widest audience possible, so partnering with free platforms like Facebook, which has 270 million users in India, is key to us."
Sony, which reportedly paid $32 million (€28 million) for rights between 2014 and 2018, gave up broadcasting rights after Facebook's pitch.
There was snow. There were seesaws. There were really early strikes and really late winners. With the Bundesliga season drawing to a close, DW presents the best nine matches from the past 10 months.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Gentsch
Matchday 8: Borussia Dortmund 2-3 RB Leipzig
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gave BVB an early lead on Matchday 8, but goals from Marcel Sabitzer and Yussuf Poulsen (pictured) put RB ahead at the break. It went from bad to worse for BVB after halftime when defender Sokratis was sent off and Jean-Kevin Augustin extended the visitors' lead. Although RB were also reduced to 10 men, Aubameyang's penalty wasn't enough to save Dortmund.
Image: Getty Images/L.Baron
Matchday 11: Wolfsburg 3-3 Hertha Berlin
Vedad Ibisevic took just 20.6 seconds to get this one going with Hertha's opener and the pace barely let up in a frenetic Sunday evening encounter. We also saw two disallowed goals, a Mario Gomez penalty that rattled the bar, a goal that went in off both posts and a dramatic late equalizer from Hertha's Davie Selke (pictured) which meant the teams shared the points.
The Foals have often struggled to find the net this season, but there was no shortage of goals when Hoffenheim visited Borussia Park in March. Julian Nagelsmann's team took the lead three times through Benjamin Hübner (above), Andre Kramaric (penalty) and Florian Grillitsch, but Gladbach responded with Josip Drmic, Lars Stindl and finally, in the 90th minute, Matthias Ginter.
Frankfurt got off to a terrible start in this battle for the Champions League places, with Marco Russ turning the ball into his own goal 11 minutes in. Luka Jovic finally equalized in the 75th minute, but Michy Batshuayi quickly restored BVB's lead. Eintracht thought they had a draw when Danny Blum pulled them level in injury time. That's when Batshuayi scored another to break Hessian hearts.
Image: Getty Images /Bongarts/L. Baron
Matchday 17: Hannover 4-4 Bayer Leverkusen
What a seesaw battle! Julian Brandt's 11th minute volley was canceled out by Ihlas Bebou's header seconds later. Niclas Füllkrug scored from the spot, but Admir Mehmedi struck to pull Leverkusen level. Felix Klaus gave Hannover the lead on halftime but Leon Bailey evened the score early in the second half. His second in the 66th gave Bayer the lead, Julian Korb made it a 4-4 final in the 82nd.
Image: Getty Images/Bongarts/S. Franklin
Matchday 15: Cologne 3-4 Freiburg
At the 15th attempt, Cologne fans must have felt a win was finally theirs. They were 3-0 up in 30 minutes, the second coming in comedic fashion as Sehrou Guirassy (19) and the referee initially struggled locate the penalty spot. Freiburg pulled it back to 3-2 but with 90 minutes gone, Cologne looked safe. But the hapless hosts gave away two stoppage time penalties and Nils Petersen scored both.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Kirchner
Matchday 13: Borussia Dortmund 4-4 Schalke
This truly was one of the most entertaining matches of the season — unless you are a BVB fan. Dortmund came out flying in the first half, taking a 4-0 lead in the first 25 minutes. Schalke looked shell-shocked, but they were a changed team after the break, fighting back with three goals to get close the gap to one. Naldo headed home four minutes into injury time to earn the draw in Dortmund.
Image: picture-alliance/Fotostand/Wundrig
Matchday 29: Hamburg 3-2 Schalke
Aaron Hunt's 84th minute thunderbolt gave Hamburg a stunning 3-2 win over second-placed Schalke to lift them off the bottom of the table. Naldo had struck first for Schalke in the seventh minute, but Filip Kostic equalized in the 17th. Lewis Holtby (pictured) gave HSV the lead in the 52nd, but this was canceled out by Guido Burgstaller nine minutes later. Then came Aaron Hunt...
Image: imago/MIS/C. Müller
Matchday 21: Cologne 2-3 Borussia Dortmund
BVB fans will remember this match for how Michy Batshuayi announced his arrival in the Bundesliga. The Belgian became the first Bundesliga debutante to score multiple goals since... Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Severely relegation-threatened Cologne gave Dortmund a battle, and looked like possibly snatching a point at home. Andre Schürrle ended that illusion six minutes from time.
Image: imago/U. Kraft
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Growing trend
Several tech groups have secured rights for various sports, in a bid to keep young viewers on their platforms.
Earlier this year, Amazon acquired rights for 20 English Premier League matches a season from 2019 in Britain.
Facebook's foray into sports streaming began in 2017 when it started airing weekly Major League Baseball games in the US. Earlier this month it won the rights to show one La Liga and one Serie A game per week on its platform in the UK. But this latest deal is its first direct deal with a major football league, according to Bloomberg.
Facebook told Reuters it was interested in making further sports streaming acquisitions.
Last year, it reportedly bid $600 million for Indian cricket rights but was trumped by Century Fox Inc.
