Big news for footballing fans and social media users across the Indian subcontinent this week.
Facebook will broadcast every Spanish La Liga football match during the 2018/19 season for free across eight Asian countries.
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The league features some of world football’s most popular players, including Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos.
For La Liga, the deal will broaden the reach of the league across Asia with minimal effort.
“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,” Alfredo Bermejo, La Liga’s digital head told Reuters.
The deal also affects football fans in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Sports broadcasting isn’t a new territory for Facebook, but this move is notable considering the importance of the Spanish league in world football.
It’s also not clear just how much Facebook is paying for the rights, which includes the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons.
The La Liga season kicks off this weekend.
Feature image: Börkur Sigurbjörnsson via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
