Yahoo shocked NFL fans last June, when it was first reported that the company — and not YouTube — would be broadcasting the first-ever global livestream of an NFL game.
The game was designated to be the Buffalo Bills vs. Jacksonville Jaguars game from London's Wembley Stadium this past Oct. 25 ... and wow, did Yahoo's grand experiment pay off. The tech company received 33.6 million video streams of that game, making the experiment a big success.
Well, chances are that Mark Zuckerberg took notice.
In an interview Monday with Variety, Facebook's VP of partnerships Dan Rose confirmed that the social media force is in talks with the NFL over securing rights to livestream games.
More specifically, Facebook is among those bidding for rights for Thursday Night Football games.
"We'll see," Rose told Variety, in reference to Facebook possibly landing those rights, competing against the likes of Amazon and Verizon.
If Facebook is able to secure rights to NFL games, just imagine what a coup that would be for the social media company. As it currently stands, fans flock to Facebook anyway to sound off in real-time about what's going on in games across all sports, including the NFL. Actually being the host to this livestream of NFL games would only add to the social media experience, with fans able to keep their eyes on the action, while commenting about what they see at the same time.
If Facebook wants to know around how much it will be paying to land the rights for one game, it shouldn't look any further than the $20 millon that Yahoo coughed up to secure the rights to that Bills vs. Jaguars game last fall.
That livestream was aided by the fact that the game turned into a wild shootout between the teams, helping the broadcast to tally 15.2 million unique viewers.
The game also marked the first time that football fans could experience an NFL game without cable or satellite television, with the league itself reporting that 33 percent of the audience for that Oct. 25 game was international, showing that there's real hunger for the product worldwide.
Now, just imagine the kinds of numbers Facebook will do if it's able to secure rights to an NFL game.
