Meta partners with ICC

As part of Meta’s partnership with ICC, people will now be able to watch the best match moments and highlights of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, through clips on Reels on the official T20 World Cup accounts across Instagram and Facebook. With the growing production and consumption of Reels in India, fans will be able to follow their favourite match moments in the short video format, and engage with the content through audio features and others like Remix.

Since 2019, Meta has the rights to digital content for ICC events including match recaps, in-play key moments, and other match and feature content on Facebook. Now, the partnership includes Reels, considering the popularity of the short video format. As part of the partnership, Meta has the rights to digital content for all 45 matches for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

In addition, fans can come together to celebrate and support their favourite teams and cricketers across Instagram and Facebook in three ways (1) AR effects - every participating team has an AR effect hosted on @t20worldcup for fans to use in their Reels and Stories (2) a cricket anthem - for those who want to cheer the Indian cricket team, there’s an anthem for them to use in their Reels and Stories called ‘Balla Chalaa’ produced by Ram Sampath and Sona Mohapatra and (3) Reels squad - a squad of creators are travelling to Australia to create engaging content with all participating cricketers and teams.

Manish Chopra, director and head of partnerships, Facebook India (Meta) said, “Watching video is half the time spent on our platforms today and Reels is our fastest growing content format by far. Considering India’s passion for cricket, we wanted to bring all the action to Reels, and in other interesting ways too, which make watching and engaging with cricket fun over the next month. We’re thankful for the partnership with ICC, and with everyone involved - the teams, cricketers, creators and artists - who are focused on bringing all the cricketing action to life on our platforms.”

Finn Bradshaw, the ICC’s Head of Digital, said, “Digital consumption of cricket through ICC events has consistently grown with Instagram and Facebook and bringing the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to Reels will help cricket fans engage even more deeply with the sport and their favourite cricketers. We are also looking forward to see all the content that will be published from the collabs between the creators who’re part of the Reels squad and the cricketers across various teams.”

Meta’s first ‘Reels squad’

Globally, Meta has chosen a few creators to be a part of a ‘Reels squad’ who receive exclusive opportunities for experiences and partnerships. In India, for the first time, Meta has sent its ‘Reels squad’ to Australia, in partnership with ICC, to create content with the cricketers and teams present at the World Cup. The Reels squad includes Danish Sait, Viraj Ghelani, Shubham Gaur, RJ Karishma, Naveen Singh (Bihariladka), and Anushka Singh. Their content can be followed and watched using #ReelsSquadIndia.

The cricket anthem will be available for people to use within the Reels audio gallery on Instagram and can also be accessed here https://www.instagram.com/reels/audio/551942756695058/ The anthem is already trending with creators such as Jannat Zubair, Anushka Sen and Awez Darbar among others doing the ‘Balla Chalaa’ dance challenge on Reels.