Facebook and Fox Sports have jumped in bed for a six month affair. The companies on Sunday announced a new partnership that will bring Facebook data and social chatter to live NFL games, college football, and soccer broadcasts.
Fox Sports will implement Facebook data in a variety of ways to supplement its own real-time analysis. Facebook will be used to poll viewers, field viewer questions, and even show a ticker of real-time user conversations.
The deal is content-related which means the two companies are not paying fees to one another for use of information.
According to Justin Osofsky, VP of media partnerships and online operations for Facebook:
“Sports are inherently social and a big part of the conversations occurring on Facebook. In fact, there are over 1.6 billion connections between people and sports entities on Facebook. That’s why we are very excited to work with FOX Sports to bring a new dimension to the viewing experience and integrate the voices of the fans into their broadcasts.”
Facebook recently announced searchable hashtags and verified accounts in order to generate better conversations in real-time. This new partnership will allow Facebook to strengthen its real-time engagement.
A recent study has found that upwards of 100 million people engage with Facebook friends and the public during primetime television.
According to recent user engagement numbers Facebook users created 60 million NFL-related interactions during the league’s opening weekend.
Fox Sports will also use Facebook data to build charts, graphs, maps and other visual devices that will be used during live-broadcasts.
Fox Sports began using the new partnership during Saturday’s FXO Sports’ college football broadcasts.
At this time it is not clear if the Facebook and Fox Sports partnership will continue the relationship after six months.
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