Facebook Teams up with the NFL with Ads from Verizon
Facebook has teamed up with the National Football League (NFL). Starting on Tuesday, the NFL will be posting short video clips on the social media website accompanied with advertisements from Verizon Wireless.
Short video clips will include game highlights of spectacular plays. They will also include NFL news and updates as well as fantasy football advice. During the clip, viewers will see a sponsor ad at the bottom. After the clips are finished, an ad from Verizon will air. Sources reported that Verizon would pay both Facebook and the NFL. How the two companies will split that revenue is still unclear.
"This is a small video sponsorship test, and we will be evaluating how people, publishers, and marketers respond to this kind of co-branded video content on Facebook," a Facebook spokeswoman said reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Striking a deal with the NFL is not an easy feat. The league is known for being very cautious when it comes to sharing content and generally likes to keep its video clips and other data within its own digital services.
"NFL rights aren't easy to secure. The league is known for its caution in metering out its content. It doesn't let clips of its games run wild in social media and it doesn't have an official YouTube channel, for example. The league's TV partners-despite spending billions to carry NFL games on their air-don't always have have rights to stream games on mobile devices or tweet about them," the WSJ wrote.
With this latest venture, Facebook will be taking another step into becoming a major player in online videos. Facebook has been trying to get users to post their videos directly onto the website, as opposed to other digital services, such as YouTube. Sources also reported that the company has also ventured out to traditional media companies in order to see if they want to use the website as a video distribution outlet.
