Social media company Facebook has made its latest high-level appointment as its seeks to further bolster its presence in the sports rights market, with Rhys Beer joining from US media group NBCUniversal.
Beer has taken up a role leading Facebook’s sports partnerships and programming initiatives in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Beer had worked at NBCU for almost five years, most recently as vice-president of sports distribution and business development.
The news comes after Peter Hutton in March left as chief executive of international sports broadcaster Eurosport to take up a new position at Facebook.
Hutton will join Facebook as director of global live sports partnerships and programming, reporting to Dan Reed, head of global sports partnerships.
This is a new role for Facebook as it seeks to step up its engagement in the sports rights market. Hutton will lead the company’s overall strategy to bring live sports broadcasts to Facebook and will start in the position in late May.