Facebook kicks off NFL partnership with ad-supported video c
Source: Gina Hall
Facebook, the world's biggest social network, is sporting a new partner: the National Football League.
The freshly signed deal will allow Facebook to distribute ad-supported NFL video clips to its 1.3 billion users around the world an audience that views 1 billion videos a day, according to the Wall Street Journal.
For Facebook users who have "liked" a football team, it will be simple to begin adding clips of that team into the fans' feed. In other cases, the network's algorithm will likely be able to deduce the sorts of clips that will connect based on the wealth of information the company has acquired about the user's location, interests and viewing history
A company representative told the newspaper that the NFL deal is a small "test." It's a test that Facebook must feel like it can ace because it is reportedly already in talks with the National Basketball Association on a similar pact.
Sports leagues have already struck similar bargains with Twitter, but it should be noted that Facebook has five times the users that Twitter does. Furthermore, the Big Apple-based NFL chose Facebook to distribute its content rather than Google and YouTube. That doesn't mean, however, that deals on that front are off the table.
Up until now, Facebook has allowed users and advertisers to populate feeds. Now, it appears, the social network plans to begin providing its users with video content that their clicking habits suggest they will like. And if the NFL clips prove successful, this might be just the beginning.
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