With more than 1.65 billion users, Facebook is already heads above its social-media competition, but now Facebook Live is booming and changing the way content creators and distributors use the platform.
Rob Shaw, who heads Global Sports Media Partnerships for Facebook, chatted with SVG about the company's drive to provide new and outstanding opportunities for sports entities and how Facebook Live is changing the game for video in the digital world.
As someone who works for a media company that describes itself as an open platform, give us a look what your role is? In what ways are you able to offer support for a team or a league that might want to do more with Facebook?
Our goal is kind of twofold. Number one, it's almost being a consultant to sports-media professionals, to make sure that they do have the tools to be able to make an impact, that they are up-to-date with best practices and best examples, that they are aware of the technology, and even connecting some of the technology. It definitely is important to be able to give them an idea of what is working and what is possible on Facebook.
Rob Shaw, head of Global Sports Media Partnerships, Facebook
But just as important is taking their feedback, understanding how Facebook drives their business. How can you use marketing to raise awareness, which ultimately leads to tune-in for broadcast? We're experimenting with monetization right now. [Taking] the information that we get from the sports-media professionals, talking to our business-development team, talking to our product team: these are all very important conversations that we have both internally and externally.
The ultimate goal is to connect the 650 million sports fans with the best content possible. That's what we ultimately hope to do. But, to do that, we have to drive our sports-media partner's businesses, and that's another key focus.
Give us an example of a really strong sports use case of Facebook Live. Is there one particular institution or team or league where you've thought to yourself, All right, they get it. That's interesting.
I think there's been a lot of partners that have gotten it so far.
The NFL Draft is one of the most exciting moments of the year, specifically socially. It's such a great social event. It's the one time that 32 fan bases actually have something to be excited about. We were very interested to see how media partners were going to respond and use Facebook Live in a meaningful way.
There were several [examples]. I thought Bleacher Report basically did a week of social shows where it felt like you were watching a live studio broadcast but it happened to be recorded on Facebook. They did use the API, so everything we're familiar with in the broadcast industry - such as the lower thirds, the transitions, even highlights and B roll of athletes - was incorporated into it.
It was 45 minutes of analysis, but that analysis was responsive to people asking questions live on Facebook. You'd have Chris Simms talking about a different athlete, and then suddenly there'd be dozens of questions coming in in real time. Bleacher's production [team] quickly put some of those questions up on the screen, and they [were] answered. [It was] a really high-quality broadcast that took advantage of state-of-the-art technology to get that up onto Facebook Live, but the formatting of the content, making it social and interactive, [made] it a very intimate experience for the viewer.
Looking at some of the stuff Silver Chalice is doing, 120 Sports in particular. They played a game of Jenga with the players who were drafted: every time [a player] pulled out a Jenga puzzle piece, [there was] a question on it and they had to answer it. So it was that element of suspense, it was that element of mystery, the unknown, unraveling in front of the viewer's eyes. [It was a] very creative use of the platform to do some real social storytelling.
Also, Fox Sports had Jay Glazer do a live podcast of the NFL Draft on Facebook. And ESPN [did] a mock Draft from the ESPN account [and] had tens of thousands of live viewers.
So it seems like the industry has picked up on it pretty rapidly. Most important, all these millions of NFL fans were able to have this new experience unfold in front of them during the Draft. That was a moment of pride.
From your perspective, does there need to be a balance? I know you'll say it's really whatever the producer wants to do with the program, but the rawness of Facebook Live is part of what makes it very engaging and feel real. Do you think someone could take it too far by putting it on a too high-end production, or is there room on this platform for all kinds of programming?
To be 100% honest, we're going to find out. We're still in such early days of experimentation that it's hard to say what works and what doesn't yet.
I will say this: the content needs to be inherently social to take advantage of the platform. This is what differentiates Facebook Live from television. To be able to have it interactive is very important. Then there's also the intimacy. I do think the more barriers you take down from production, the more intimate it may feel, the more personal it might feel, the more authentic it might feel. So it really depends a lot on what the story is and what you're covering.
In the example of Bleacher, where the goal was professional analysis, it made sense to have that nice production feel and to be able to incorporate [live] graphics, [have] the questions coming from fans, [and also have] an athlete pick up their phone and give their gut reaction to having been drafted or the gut reaction to the breaking news unfolding in front of them.
That's the case for all public figures, not just athletes. We see it sometimes where [sports journal
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With more than 1.65 billion users, Facebook is already heads above its social-media competition, but now Facebook Live is booming and changing the way content creators and distributors use the platform. 
