Facebook acquires Premier League rights for Asia

Facebook has powered ahead of BeIN Sports and Fox Sports Asia; in order to secure about £200m worth exclusive rights to broadcast live Premier League matches in Southeast Asia from 2019.

According to a leading publication, the social media giant will broadcast 380 games in the English top flight available to watch in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.The social media giant made its first biggest bet in live sports last year with Indian Premier League media rights that ultimately went to Star India for a record $2.55bn.It has been further investing in senior sports talent globally as well to strengthen its sports content.

 It earlier appointed Joyee Biswas as APAC sports partnership head, Rhys Beer as head of sports partnerships in Europe and Peter Hutton as director of global live sports partnerships. For the meantime, in the UK it is Amazon that has made its much anticipated move into live sports by snapping up one of two final Premier League rights packages.