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June 28, 2012

BBC to stream Wimbledon and London Olympics through Facebook

The international broadcaster has forged a partnership to stream live sporting events through the world’s largest social network.

By Tineka Smith

BBC and Facebook

The Facebook application will allow audiences to watch live strams of major sporting events and up to 24 streams of Olympics coverage.

The application allows users to watch and chat online with friends during events.

When a user presses play on stream or "Like" it will appear in their Facebook news feed with real time updates to the in-app activity stream.

The application launch marks the first time the BBC has streamed live events on Facebook.

"With our Facebook app we aim to bring even greater value to our online audiences, enabling them to watch together and share their excitement," says Phil Fearnley, General Manager for BBC News & Knowledge. "We hope to use it to test the benefits of social viewing, as part of our ambition to deliver more innovative and transformative experiences to sports fans."

A beta version has already been launched for Wimbledon viewing and the chat feature will be available in time for the Olympics.

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"It’s a core part of the BBC’s mission to bring our quality content to audiences wherever they are," says Fearnley. "I’m very excited to be able to offer sport fans on Facebook a really distinctive live streaming experience."

The BBC Sport site receives over 20 million requests for streaming content each month.

Please follow this author on Twitter @Tineka_S or comment below.

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