Before winning gold at Rio 2016, the USA men's and women's basketball teams played exhibition games in preparation, games that streamed live on Facebook.
From July 22 to Aug. 1, Facebook streamed five men's and four women's games against international challengers. The games were live-streamed on the NBA and the USA Basketball Facebook pages, as well as the NBA TV site. Although that last option required authentication, the two Facebook pages were open to all.
Although partnering by social platforms and sports is still in the experimental phase, the goal is to create new options for fans to watch their favorite teams. As ReCode reported, the nine exhibition games attracted 7 million views (a view being a viewing session of at least three seconds). Of the nine games, the top draw was the men's match against China on July 24.
Facebook has made video a central focus and welcomes the experimentation taking place with sports broadcasters.
Our mission is to connect fans to the content they love most, says Devi Mahadevia, head of global sports league partnerships, Facebook. With 650 million sports fans on Facebook globally, we are excited to uncover more innovative ways to provide fans with a unique, immersive, and engaging experience. Sports partners globally - leagues, teams, media, athletes - continue to test various formats of live content on our platform - from interviews and Q&As to behind-the-scenes on game days to live games - to drive new areas of growth, fan reach, and engagement.
To watch the live games, Facebook members needed to be a fan of the NBA or USA Basketball. Then the videos appeared automatically in their newsfeeds. It's a simpler interface than hunting down a stream on Twitter. Although Mahadevia can't say exactly what lessons the basketball live streams taught the video team at Facebook, she notes, We are constantly learning from all of our partners, from sports to entertainment to news, around how people interact with live content and assessing product changes to create the best experience.
Facebook has paid deals in place with some publishers and content owners, but the exhibition basketball games weren't a paid arrangement. Verizon was the presenting sponsor, and the payment went to the NBA, not Facebook. The NBA and NBA TV produced the games and all related branded-content integration, then delivered the feed to Facebook using the Live API. The NBA handled the ads during the events, as well as third-party branding elements. Hosts mentioned that Verizon would supply content in the commercial breaks, and the NBA included branding in all segments with preproduced video or in-arena streams.
The NBA used Livestream software for some of the events and Tricaster for others, but Facebook didn't work with any outside vendors on these videos.
A big part of succeeding on social platforms is using their toolsets to create a unique experience for the viewer. A Facebook stream needs to feel distinctly like a Facebook stream.
Facebook Live has interactive elements built into the product, such as Live Reactions and inviting friends to watch the Live. These features are available for all live videos on the platform, Mahadevia explains. Live Reactions makes it easy for your viewers to express their feelings in real time during a live broadcast. Using the same reactions, we launched in News Feed; viewers can select Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, or Angry; and the reactions animate right on top of the video. Live Reactions disappear quickly so broadcasters and other viewers can get a sense of how people are feeling at different points during the live video. It's like hearing the crowd applaud and cheer. When your friend reacts to your video or to a video you are both watching together, you'll see their profile pic and a little starburst before their reaction appears.
The big question for the Facebook team going into these games was, do people want to watch long, live sports events on its platform? The results put a smile on their faces.
Initial results indicated that fans are interested in engaging with longer-form sports content on our platform and that we can help support viewership globally, Mahadevia explains. We will continue to explore these kinds of experiences and help partners develop innovative content strategies on Facebook to drive more fan reach and engagement.
That's good news for sports fans, because it means more live games coming to the social network - hopefully, with no authentication required.
Says Mahadevia, We will continue to test various forms of live sports content on Facebook with our partners.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Before winning gold at Rio 2016, the USA men's and women's basketball teams played exhibition games in preparation, games that streamed live on Facebook.
