Brought to you by the Content-sharing partnership sees number of games on Watch increase from 28 to 46. Getty Images Social media giant Facebook and pay-TV broadcaster Fox Sports have announced a one-year content-sharing partnership in South America that will see both platforms secure more live coverage of this season’s Copa Libertadores, the continent’s premier club soccer tournament. Starting this week, with the fourth round of group stage matches, the tie-up will see the number of games available for free on Facebook Watch increase from 28 to 46, while Fox Sports will gain access to all fixtures that were due to be shown exclusively on Facebook on Thursdays. Live games on Facebook will also now be available on the Conmebol Libertadores page every Tuesday through Thursday. The partnership covers Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Different broadcast deals are in place in Brazil, but SportsPro understands Facebook is looking to strike a similar agreement in the continent’s only Portuguese-speaking country. The announcement comes after Facebook and Conmebol, the governing body for soccer in South America, moved to deny reports that the social media platform had lost exclusivity on its Copa Libertadores rights, which the company secured in a four-year deal back in October. Facebook maintains that it never lost exclusive rights to the live matches it will now share this season with Fox, and added that it asked Conmebol for the right to sublicense the games for the rest of the year in order to reach more people. "We are very pleased with this new partnership to continue taking football everywhere,” said Juan Emilio Roa, Conmebol’s commercial director. “We value the efforts of our rights holders to create new experiences for Conmebol Libertadores fans across South America.” Facebook has struck similar deals for its live sports coverage in the past. Last year the social media company agreed a sublicensing deal for its La Liga rights in India with pay-TV channel Sony Pictures Networks. "Consumer behaviour is changing, and we want to help bring this change and innovation to the sports ecosystem in Latin America,” added Leonardo Lenz, Facebook’s director of sports partnerships for Latin America. “Our experience has shown that more matches can help people adopt more easily this new behaviour, so we are excited to expand our collaboration with Fox Sports, giving people more opportunities to watch Libertadores matches through a new social viewing experience on Facebook.”
Facebook and Fox Sports have signed a one-year regional content-sharing deal to boost coverage of South America’s Copa Libertadores tournament. Through the partnership, the number of games accessible via Facebook Watch will rise from 28 to 46, while Fox will broadcast Thursday fixtures that were previously exclusive to Facebook. The deal covers nine countries, including Argentina, Chile and Venezuela. “Soccer is one of our most popular sports in Latin America, so we are excited about this partnership with Facebook,” said FOX Deportes President Javier de la Fuente.