CMS advises ICC on ground-breaking digital content partnership with Facebook

International law firm CMS has advised the International Cricket Council (ICC) on its latest digital content rights tender process, which saw Facebook become the exclusive digital content rights partner in the Indian sub-continent for all of the ICC global events for the next cycle. These include the next men’s and women’s T20 World Cups and the World Test Championship final, all leading up to the next men’s Cricket World Cups in India in 2023.

As part of the agreement, Facebook will also carry post-match recaps throughout the rest of the world from 2019 through to 2023.

The collaboration builds on the unprecedented digital success of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019, which cemented cricket’s position as one of the world’s most watched sports, netting 4.6 billion #CWC19 video views across ICC’s digital and social media platforms.

The CMS team advising ICC on the tender process was led by Media Partner John Enser, assisted by Anna Soilleux-Mills, Rebecca Platt and Alasdair Lamb.

John Enser comments: “We are pleased to have supported ICC through the competitive bid process to secure this ground-breaking partnership with Facebook. The multi-year, multi-market partnership is a genuine first for the game and will enable ICC to leverage Facebook’s platforms to serve cricket enthusiasts and reach an entirely new generation of fans. Our representation on this matter is yet another example of our team leading on transactions which disrupt media and sports business, as reflected in our continuing tier 1 status in the recent Legal 500 UK guide.”