Soon, cricket- match recaps, in-play moments and feature content are going to be available on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. This follows the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) partnership with Facebook that makes the american social media giants the world body’s “exclusive digital content rights partner” for all ICC events within the subcontinent until 2023.
Post-match recaps will be carried throughout the rest of the world as well. India would be hosting 2 major ICC events throughout this period – the 2021 World T20 and the 2023 World Cup. The ICC represented the deal as “ground-breaking”.
Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp 2 years later. Earlier this year, Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had disclosed his plans to integrate the services by early 2020. according to a spokesperson from the Facebook’s PR team in India, cricket which will be available on Facebook, will come back to WhatsApp and Instagram as well.
“What will come on Facebook are going to be cross-posted on WhatsApp and Instagram. If there’s a highlights package of 3 to 5 minutes on Facebook, that is shared on Instagram, it goes to IGTV (a standalone video application) straightaway. Because, on Instagram, videos have a limit of 1 minute. As far as WhatsApp is concerned, we’ll work out a way to bring the content on the app,” the Facebook spokesperson said, adding that the total endeavour is aimed toward the way Facebook is trying to form its “sports narrative”.
The social media conglomerate is making an attempt to bring in a lot of sports content for its followers. they have a partnership with La Liga additionally, with regards to the Spanish soccer league’s digital content in India.
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ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney cited this year’s World Cup’s digital popularity as a reason behind Facebook’s involvement within the game. “The record-breaking growth in digital consumption at this summer’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup demonstrated the continued power of cricket to attach and engage more deeply with various audiences round the world.
“Throughout the competitive bid process, we received tremendous interest from a spread of platforms, all of whom recognize the phenomenal reach of cricket. In Facebook, we’ve got a real partner who shares in our ambition to continue to grow and deepen engagement with cricket fans globally using its platforms,” ICC chief executive expressed in a press release.
According to the ICC, the world Cup in England had 4.6 billion video views across the worldwide body’s digital and social media platforms. Facebook India vice-president and managing director Ajit Mohan termed the arrangement as “the next stage of technology led transformation” in cricket.
“With Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the ICC has an exceptional chance to leverage our family of apps to serve current sports fans moreover as bring in a completely new era of fans. Every day, individuals come back to our platforms to speak about, and form friendships around, cricket. With this partnership, we’ll be able to serve these fans with the sort of premium content that may ignite new conversations, new connections and new follower-ship,” he said.
The company stressed that the deal would no way infringe the ICC’s global broadcast partner, Star Sports’ rights. “It’s not a screening deal. It won’t involve Facebook screening the matches. however it would involve content around the matches coming out on Facebook. as an example, when a match is being broadcast, after an hour or so Facebook will have a high highlights package running. TV broadcast stays with Star and it’s not technically even incompatible with Hotstar,” the spokesperson said.
“The future of AR and VR is being charted by Facebook and we are excited about the possibility of bringing the best of our innovations to fans around the world.”
The package includes the following events across the 2019-2023 cycle:
ICC Major Global Events
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020
ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021
ICC World Test Championship Final 2021
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2022
ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023
ICC World Test Championship Final 2023
ICC Men’s Qualifying Events:
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019
ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2022
Other ICC Events:
ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2020
ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2022
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