Monday, September 23, 2013

FOX Sports Brings Real-Time Facebook Streams to the Sidelines

Fox-sports-web
While you may have already noticed the integration of social media into your sports broadcast, Twitter is not "the only game in town" when it comes to a presence on television.  Facebook and FOX Sports just announced a new six-month deal that will allow Facebook and FOX Sports to go into a partnership that will hopefully be beneficial for both sides.  While not a new idea to team a broadcast network with a social media platform, it is, however, a new venture for both FOX Sports and Facebook.

The announced plan will see Facebook surveying the audience for analytical data to be broadcasted on air, as well as streams of comments from users of the interactive site.  This new model will be started on FOX Sports 1 channel, FOX's new twenty-four hour network dedicated to sports, and hopes to utilize the 1.6 billion connections between users and sports entities already existing on Facebook.  No money will be exchanged between the network and popular web site, at least for duration of the initial contract.

Is Facebook merely just following the path already made by Twitter with their respective deal with ESPN?  This seems to be the case, with Facebook implementing tools used in Twitter, such as searchable hashtags and verified accounts.  With Facebook being arguably one of the top social media networks, it's hard to believe they're finally promoting through a convergence of medias.  Fans of sports can be influenced to use Facebook more, while sports fans now have Facebook to coincide with their sports viewing.  Time will tell, after the six-month period is over, whether or not the partnership is helpful to both companies. 
For more information on the relationship between FOX Sports and Facebook, click the link below.
on.mash.to/1eDhUS0

1 comment:

  1. I find this very interesting. It almost seems like Facebook is trying to be like Twitter. Twitter seems to be used very often on live television and shows users tweets with the hash-tag about the show. Maybe Facebook is trying to break into the TV field like Twitter did.

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