In a recent interview with Variety, Facebook‘s V.P. of Partnerships, Dan Rose, confirmed that the company is in discussions with the National Football League to secure rights for live streaming of football games on its platform. The social media network is also reaching out to Hollywood agents to bring actors, athletes, music artists and others to its live stream service. While Facebook has so far been a platform for user generated content, its interest in NFL rights appears to be a shift in strategy where the company is looking to acquire content. With sports events, Facebook plans to include additional content such as behind-the-scenes reporting from the locker room or on the field. It also plans to create a social experience around live sports and is open to having a wide variety of content beyond the game on Facebook. In August last year the company had launched its “Facebook Live” for limited users. This live broadcast facility is now available to iPhone, iOS and Android users in the U.S. We believe bidding for NFL rights is an indication that Facebook is increasing focus on its live video stream and looking to provide high quality content to its users, even if it has to pay for content. This could increase its costs in the short term but can prove to be a powerful way of reducing content fatigue and increasing user engagement while attracting TV advertisers to its platform in the long term.

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