Facebook has hired Eurosport’s chief executive, Peter Hutton, to lead its multibillion push for live-streaming top-flight live sports, threatening traditional rights holders.
After missing out on the streaming rights to the Indian Premier League cricket matches, Facebook could be getting ready to submit a bid for rights to the English Premier League football matches before the deadline on 9th February 2018.
However, Hutton is unlikely to take up his role at Facebook until after the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Amazon has also been rumoured to be considering a bid for the Premier League.
The Premier League has created two packages of rights that appear to be specifically designed in order to appeal to a digital company such as Facebook or Amazon.
These packages each offer two rounds of games for simulcast which could be attractive for a streaming platform, while different to Sky and BT’s strategy as pay-TV broadcasters.
While at Eurosport, Peter Hutton was key to obtaining the European rights to broadcasting the Olympic Games in a deal worth £920m.
