There is interest for WSL fans as a number of players from WSL teams will be on show, including Andrine Hegerberg of Birmingham City (and also her UEFA Best Player sister Ada) for the home team.
Excitingly, the match will be shown live on the National Football Team Facebook page. It is the first time ever, as far as we can tell, that a full senior international will appear on Facebook Live.
“Social media provides unique opportunities for two-way communication with fans, while also reaching out to a younger audience than traditional media channels. This friendly match against Sweden is an excellent opportunity to test things out for the first time, to gauge the interest and to see in what ways it is possible to differentiate from a traditional linear broadcast. Our long and successful collaboration with public broadcaster NRK has been strong in the qualifiers and together we will go forward to the finals next summer, they are following this test with great interest,” says Communications Director Yngve Haavik, of the NFF.
The feeds starts 15 minutes before the game. There will be interviews with players and coach, and exclusive behind the scenes clips before the game, at halftime and after the match. Viewers and the audience can also submit their questions along the way.
In addition there will be a report from the Fanzone outside the stadium and with engagement from the fans and input from those following online.
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Our goal is to bring the fans closer to the team and build a stronger relationship,” says Pearse Connolly, Head of Business Development and Digital activities. “We see FB Live as a great way to test the waters in social media (SoMe) live content and have much to learn. From the planning and resources needed to engage in a meaningful and compelling way, to the changes in the production and distribution of the feed. We know it’s tough to get through to our audience on SoMe with the huge amount of content our there, so we want to test if Live will make you stop and take notice. Most people thumb past 90% of stories – most of them are on their mobile and have the sound off – we want to find out how the live notification and the social dynamics effect the visibility and engagement with our content. The first full international live fixture is a great opportunity to test all this. If you do take the time to look at the game, then give us a Like – we want to see if those numbers get a boost too.”
The match will be produced with four cameras, graphics and Norwegian commentator by our long time production partner OB team.
The stream starts Monday at 18.45 CET with kick-off at 19:00 CET.
