Facebook to air La Liga season in India
MUMBAI: In a landmark deal, Facebook will broadcast matches of Spanish top flight football, La Liga, beaming them free to the viewers in the Indian subcontinent. Digital companies getting into content is a revolution happening around the world and the Facebook-la Liga deal has made everyone sit up and take notice.
The social media network has 2.2 billion active monthly users globally and 217 million in India.
Country Manager La Liga India, Jose Antonio Cachaza sounded excited when he spoke over the phone from the Madrid airport: “It’s a ground breaking deal. In La Liga, we want to be ahead of the times, it is the right time to do it. Digital is the present, it is there! In the last IPL, one of four people watched it on digital.”
Experts who are in the thick of things are not surprised that Facebook has pipped TV channels for the rights.
Speaking on the impact of a social media network acquiring the La Liga rights, Shashi Sinha, CEO of Indian arm of advertising company IPG, said: “It is a statement of intent. They all want real content, Facebook also bid for IPL. It is not a monetisation thing, it is about eyeballs. There are certain audiences which only sports covers. (For digital giants) It has to be content, not just social media.”
While there’s an increasing fear globally how digital giants will take over the space and business of other media, the media veterans don’t envisage the scenario in India. Ashish Bhasin, chairman & CEO - South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network, said: “Definitely, a lot of younger audiences have started consuming it digitally. The trend is catching up as better bandwidth and cheaper data rates are available. But, it is not one or the other. Multiscreen consumption is happening here. India is a unique scenario where all media is growing.”
Shashi Sinha echoed the point. “They cater to certain audience: upscale areas like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, and people in the age group of 15 to 30.”
Most importantly, how would Facebook sustain it as they are going to stream it free to its audience? La Liga and Facebook both declined to disclose the financial figures, but according to the Spanish media, the deal was worth 90 million euros ($₹716.44 cr).