Football fans in South America are in for a treat as they can now watch the Champions League live directly on the mobile or desktop devices as long as they use Facebook. The social media giant has acquired the right for the next three seasons from 2018 -2021 of certain UEFA Champions League live matches across Spanish-speaking territories.

Facebook has secured the exclusive free-to-air rights to 32 live matches each season, including the final and UEFA Super Cup.  The matches will be available on the UEFA Champions League Facebook Page. Wednesday highlights and magazine programmes will also be shared each match-week on Facebook. The partnership kicks off on Wednesday with the UEFA Super Cup.

Platforms like YouTube and Netflix are raring to get a piece of sports broadcast rights seen as a very lucrative venture, they have been convincing owners and agencies of brands to expand their reach from traditional medium for sometime now. Netflix had earlier in the quarter secured a deal with Formula 1 produce an exclusive behind the scene program of the sports, Google on the other hand has yet to make any bold announcement only to mean they are cooking something as well. But it’s Facebook that has made the first major move, television studios should really start sweating with deals being struck this way. Compounding the fact that advertisers are moving towards digital, studios are facing bleak future losing both viewership and ad-dollars.

This will not be the end of Facebook’s entry on the contrary after all the person who signed the deal holds the position of Head of Global Live programming which can only mean expect more live streaming of global sports event to come.