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Facebook and FOX Sports are partnering to bring college football fans closer to the action through direct engagement during game broadcasts and via the FOX Sports Facebook Page. FOX Sports plans to integrate the network’s college football broadcasts with their presence on Facebook, using content publishing, audience feedback, and Facebook media.
The partnership, called “Facebook – FOX Sports Social Sidelines”, will launch Saturday with FOX Sports’ coverage of Hawaii at No. 1 USC (new FOX pregame show starts at 7 p.m. ET). FOX and Facebook plan to extend Social Sidelines to other sports the network covers nationally and/or regionally, including MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL and soccer.
“Across Facebook, we see sporting events inspire passionate conversations, and team allegiances create strong communities. Facebook-FOX Sports Social Sidelines blends the live sports TV viewing experience with the social activity that’s already happening,” said Nick Grudin, who leads community partnerships and on-air integrations at Facebook.
The partnership includes several integration points:
Exclusive demographic analysis of Page Post Polls, asking the audience to weigh in on the biggest college football questions of the week, that will be run off of the Facebook page during Saturday night broadcasts on the network. This week’s question:
The "Ten Most Talked About Teams In College Football" for use across all games on FOX, FSN and FX.
FOX Sports fan of the week contest on the page, where fans will participate in the college football dialogue by submitting photos with the chance to be highlighted by Fox Sports.
FOX Sports broadcasters, including Erin Andrews, will actively engage in discussion with fans and viewers via their Facebook presence.
FOX will collaborate with college football team's Facebook Pages to engage school fans and alumni in the weekly conversation and coverage.
“College football is the perfect environment, with the right demographics, for integrating game telecasts and social media,” said Chris Hannan, senior vice president at FOX Sports Media Group. “Our partnership with Facebook creates unique content for fans to engage with all week, especially on game-day across our entire family of networks.“
The partnership will cover the breadth of FOX Sports Media Group's college football coverage from broadcasts across multiple channels including FOX, FSN, FX and digital properties including FOXSports.com and FOX Sports Next.
