Football fans will soon be able to watch their favorite clips from last night's game on Facebook as a result of a new deal between the social networking giant and the National Football League.
People familiar with the arrangement said that starting Tuesday, the league will post a variety of short video clips including highlights, NFL news and fantasy football advice, according to The Wall Street Journal. Ads from Verizon Wireless will show up immediately after the videos, and Verizon will be responsible for paying to promote them in football fans' news feeds.
The deal marks Facebook's latest attempt to improve its web offerings, as it has been trying to persuade YouTube creators to upload video clips directly to Facebook. It is also NFL's latest attempt to build its own digital services, such as with NFL Now, which provides in-depth content about fans' favorite teams.
Both parties can benefit from this partnership, as Facebook can increase its viewership with posts of games from one of the most popular sports in the U.S., and the NFL can take advantage of Facebook's list of 1.3 billion users to find a new way to make money, CNET reported.
The NFL has struck similar deals in the past, having signed one with Twitter last year in which the league agreed to deliver short clips of highlights with ads in the feeds of the social network's users, the Journal reported.
"This is a small video sponsorship test, and we will be evaluating how people, publishers and marketers respond to this kind of co-branded video content on Facebook," a Facebook spokeswoman said.
Neither Facebook nor the NFL immediately responded to requests for comments.
