Facebook is poised to appoint a senior broadcasting executive to lead its multibillion-dollar drive to secure streaming rights for top-flight live sport.
The appointment of Eurosport’s chief executive, Peter Hutton, follows its global search for a head of live sport after being frustrated in a $600m (£433m) bid to secure streaming rights to Indian Premier League cricket matches.
His appointment comes before the 9 February deadline for bids for the £6bn TV and digital rights for Premier League matches in the UK from 2019-22, amid speculation that Amazon and Facebook might lodge bids for some games.
Facebook’s move positions it as a threat to the stranglehold on prime sports rights held by traditional companies.
In a three-year stint at Eurosport, which is owned by US pay-TV company Discovery, Hutton was instrumental in the shock £920m deal to take control of the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games across Europe.
He had previously been co-chief executive at the sports rights group MP & Silva, where he handled selling rights including the Fifa World Cup and grand slam tennis.
Football is the most followed sport among Facebook’s 2 billion global users. To date the world’s largest social networking site has dabbled only in partnerships to stream Major League Soccer, Mexico’s top league and, with Fox Sports, for selected Champions League matches.
Hutton is not expected to start the role until after Eurosport completes its broadcast of the Winter Games in South Korea, making it unlikely that Facebook will be a contender in the UK Premier League rights auction.
However, the Premier League has created two packages of games rights designed to entice a bid from a digital player like Facebook or Amazon. The packages each offer two rounds of games for simulcast, perfect for a streaming platform to implement but not part of the strategy Sky and BT employ as pay-TV broadcasters.