San Francisco, Sep 5 - In a 'bold' move to stream the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, Facebook placed a $600 million bid to secure five years' digital distribution rights for the IPL.
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\r\nHowever, Star India bagged the media rights for both TV and digital broadcast worth Rs 16,347.50 crore with a single consolidated bid worldwide during the auctions on Monday.
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\r\nAccording to a ReCode report on Tuesday, the fact that Mark Zuckerberg was willing to put up that kind of money "is a big, bold declaration that the company will write real cheques in order to get its hands on must-see sports content".
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\r\nFacebook has been looking into more original content for its live video offering, including live sports.
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\r\nIn February, Facebook was reported to have live streamed all 46 football matches of the top level Mexican football league Liga MX 2017 season. The matches also included the playoffs.
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\r\nMicro-blogging website Twitter is already livestreaming a range of sports on its platform.
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\r\nIn July 2016, Twitter started streaming from Wimbledon, one of the most-watched tennis tournaments of the year.
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\r\nTwitter also paid the National Football League (NFL) $10 million for the rights to stream some of the league's Thursday Night Football games.
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\r\nIn November 2016, Twitter launched Android TV app allowing users to stream NFL and other live videos available on its platform.<\/p>\r\n\r\n