Dive Brief:
- Two Australian men are looking at possible legal ramifications after live streaming a boxing match on Facebook Live last Friday as reported by Mashable.
- The fight was officially broadcast via pay-per-view for $59.95 by Foxtel and a company spokesperson said it was looking at options about what the spokesperson called a “very serious” matter.
- Each of the Facebook Live streams pulled in tens of thousands of viewers and both men behind the streams are receiving support on social media and have GoFundMe pages in places for any potential legal fees resulting from their actions.
Dive Insight:
A potential showdown between Facebook and broadcasters is brewing over live streaming as pirated content continues to a problem, echoing the social media platform's struggles with publishers over the proliferation of free content that diverts viewers from their sites and providing the latest example of how Facebook is looking more like a media company all the time.
For content producers, Facebook has a Rights Manager system that allows copyright holders to remove illegally posted material, and Facebook had previously told Mashable that human moderators also monitor videos at a certain viewership threshold.
Yesterday, Facebook released a statement via a spokesperson that the tech giant has taken steps to ensure Rights Manager extends to live video streams, but one of the two Australian streams said his stream reached 153,000 viewers before Foxtel was able to get it turned off.
Unauthorized content has been an issue for Facebook Live and other live streaming video services. For Facebook, the problem carries more weight because of the platform’s reach which dwarfs the competition. Bootleg content is also easy to find on Facebook Live, per Mashable.