People in the Indian subcontinent will, from Friday, have only one way to watch top flight Spanish football: on Facebook.
The social network has signed an exclusive deal to show every La Liga game, for the next three seasons, to viewers in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, The Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The rights were previously held by Sony Pictures Network.
The terms of the new deal have not been disclosed. The last time they were for sale, in 2014, they were bought for $32m, according to Reuters.
There are 348m Facebook users in the region, 270m of them are in India.
It is the latest move from Facebook, and the tech industry in general, to invest in highly lucrative sports rights for emerging streaming services.
The social network already shows Major League Baseball to US audiences at a reported cost of $1m per game. As with the rest of Facebook, the content is free but supported by targeted advertising.
Speaking to Reuters, Facebook’s director of global live sports said the La Liga streams would at first be advertising-free, but it was considering how best to implement them in future.
“This is one deal,” Peter Hutton told the news agency. “It’s not something that is a big threat to broadcast world.”
