Social media networks devoted their attention to large-scale sports events. Earlier, only TV channels fought for the right to broadcast football games, but now some Internet giants also strive to break into live sports streaming.
Facebook is bidding for the right to stream video highlights of the 2018 FIFA World Cup hosted in Russia. Twitter and Snap also share the interest of Facebook in the football cup and are in talks with 21st Century Fox that holds the deal for US broadcasting rights to the FIFA tournament. A few years ago, Mark Zuckerberg named video content one of the priority directions. Sports event streaming arouses interest of many users and is considered an important source of ad income. Some time ago, the largest social network has signed a deal with Fox on streaming the UEFA Champions League in the United States. Moreover, Facebook intends to launch its own media product and challenge Netflix, Amazon, and HBO.
Besides, the social media platform plans to create its own TV series with the budget of up to $3 million per episode, which roughly corresponds to the budget of most popular TV shows. Facebook also aims to create TV shows with a moderate budget ($500K - $1M per episode) and short films (up to 10 minutes).
