World Cup 2018: Facebook, Twitter and Snap bid for online video highlights from Fox

The companies have offered 21st Century Fox tens of millions of dollars for rights to highlights from the Russia-hosted games that air in the US

Social media’s growing interest in video, including sports, gives Fox a potentially significant new revenue source for the games as well as a tool to promote its coverage (Reuters)

Facebook, Twitter and Snap are seeking online rights to video highlights from next year’s World Cup, football’s most popular tournament, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The companies have offered 21st Century Fox tens of millions of dollars for rights to highlights from the Russia-hosted games that air in the US, according to the people, who declined to provide more specific terms and asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Fox hasn’t decided whether to sell exclusive rights to one buyer or to spread them around.

Social media’s growing interest in video, including sports, gives Fox a potentially significant new revenue source for the games as well as a tool to promote its coverage. Fox holds US rights to the quadrennial event, and will air games on broadcast and cable TV. The company paid a reported $400m (£309m) for multiyear World Cup rights.

The World Cup is an attractive target for social-media companies eager to exhibit more premium video and attract advertisers. The 2014 World Cup Final was viewed by more than 25 million people in the US, the most-watched football match in the country’s history. With many of next year’s games at odd hours because of the time difference in Russia, highlights may be in greater demand.

The four companies declined to comment on talks, which also could include other parties. Alphabet’s YouTube offers highlights and historic games from the National Football League, while Amazon acquired the rights to show a handful of NFL games in the upcoming season. Verizon holds mobile rights to the NFL.

Facebook and Twitter hosted very little video during the last World Cup, which aired on Walt Disney’s ESPN in the US. Snap was just beginning to expand from video-messaging to hosting more professionally produced video. The company created a video, called a live story, of user-generated footage from the World Cup final.

Professional video is now a major focus for the three social-media companies. Facebook is producing original entertainment series and paying for short-form series exclusive to the social network, which has two billion daily visitors.

Twitter plans to stream live video at all times on topics like news and entertainment. Snap, whose share price has slumped since its initial public offering in March, is funding original shows from traditional media companies.

Sports is a major priority given its large audiences and fans’ desire to converse online as events occur. Facebook just reached a deal with Fox to carry some of the broadcaster’s coverage of the Champions League, the annual European football tournament. Snap has struck deals for sports highlights including the 2016 Olympics. Twitter streamed several live NFL games last season.

Fox Sports, which acquired the rights to the 2018 World Cup six years ago, has all but abandoned traditional news and highlights programming in favour of talk shows hosted by opinionated analysts. Highlight shows have become less valuable to broadcasters, and less interesting to viewers, in an era when most Americans can catch the latest clips via social-media feeds on their mobile phones.

Fox will retain rights to use highlights on its various shows, according to the people, and count on Facebook, Snap and Twitter to entice more casual sports fans to show an interest in the tournament. The companies could also produce highlight shows and other original commentary programmes to complement the highlights.

One risk for the media companies is that they’ll send too many sponsors and viewers to faster-growing social media companies that already dominate online advertising. Facebook passed Fox in annual sales last year and is expected to increase revenue 39 per cent to $38.5bn in 2017.

Live sports have been the TV industry’s strongest bulwark against steady decline in live viewership. Fans of football and basketball tend not to watch games on-demand, which has enabled TV networks to sell advertisements for sporting events at higher and higher prices.

Bloomberg