Facebook may bid to show premier league matches live

FACEBOOK will not rule itself out of the running for the bidding to stream Premier League matches.

Traditional broadcasters are facing a battle to maintain their grip.

Manchester united supremeo  told investors Facebook and Amazon were interested in securing deals for 2016-19 and will enter the bidding for 2019-22.

BSkyB and BT paid a combined £8.4billion in the last round - giving Prem clubs a huge advantage over their European rivals.

And after Amazon outbid Sky for the rights UK tennis last month, the threat to broadcasters was underlined.

Facebook’s global head of sports partnerships Dan Read said: “The Premier League is a very important".

BT Sport and Sky currently share out the matches

“We work with them to help them reach their audience. It would be premature to speculate on how we might approach that. But they are a very important partner. That speaks for itself.

"We continue to have an ongoing relationship with the Premier League.

“I’m not going to speculate on what or why the clubs in the Premier League are saying what they’re saying.

“They’re going to make their decision. We have very productive partnerships with clubs in virtually every league in the world.

"We work with them to help build their audience and content.”

And Reed aimed to reassure traditional broadcasters - pointing to his company's record with Fox in America as an example of cooperation.

He added: “We aim to collaborate with broadcasters and rights holders.

“Our partnership with Fox shows that we can have a mutually beneficial relationship. Put aside streaming of games – we help broadcasters all around the world.

“We work with Fox in the US to help them to get people to tune in to events on television, which is the bedrock of our relationship with broadcasters.

"There are a number of examples where we help broadcasters and we have an excellent relationship with Sky and BT in the UK.”

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