MUMBAI: Social media giant Facebook, which recently acquired the Indian sub-continent La Liga rights for three years, has struck a sub-licensing broadcast deal with Sony Pictures Network (SPN) India, a source close to the development has confirmed to Indiantelevision.com.

SPN has also renewed its Serie A deal for a three-year term. Sony Six and Sony ESPN will broadcast the matches, which will be streamed on its OTT platform SONY LIV.
The high-profile move of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid to Juventus has undoubtedly increased the buzz surrounding the league this term. 

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner made his Serie A debut for Juventus in a 3-2 win at Chievo on 18 August 2018 after a €100 million move from the Champions League winners.

SPN had reportedly paid $32m (€28m) when the La Liga rights for India were up for sale in 2014.

Earlier this year, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company unseated the broadcaster as it bagged the rights for the 2018/19-2020/21 cycle for an undisclosed fee.
The landmark agreement La Liga’s first broadcast deal with a social media platform.

At the time, Facebook had stated it was open to working with broadcasters in the region to increase the reach of the league. In a sense, the deal with SPN is consistent with the company’s vision and position.

While Facebook steams the La Liga content for free, it remains to be seen whether SPN’s OTT will stream the matches with a delayed feed or not.

Amazon, the tech giant, was the first platform to strike a deal to stream Premier League matches in the UK, with 10 matches to be shown on Amazon Prime on two separate days for three seasons starting from 2019.

In April 2018, Amazon wrote a large cheque for the exclusive UK rights to the US Open tennis, giving subscribers who pay £79 a year for its Prime Video service access to three of the four grand slams. 

Last year, Facebook bid for the five-year global media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which went to Star India for a hefty sum of Rs16,347.50 crore.