Hazah, Facebook! Photo: Ed Sloane/WSL
It’s official. Come July 2 (“subject to continued successful testing”) World Surf League Championship Tour events will transition to Facebook, and be streamed exclusively on the platform – a move we’ve known was coming since January. Still, it doesn’t make it any less strange.
In a letter addressed to “WSL Fans,” the League posted the news on its website Wednesday explaining that viewers will need to be logged in to Facebook to watch contests from the Corona Open J-Bay onward.
“There are many positives to our expanded Facebook partnership,” the letter explains, which inherently suggests there are also negatives, right? “Not only will you be able to enjoy the same level of quality you’re accustomed to from the WSL, but you’ll also have access to additional features to enhance your experience such as interactivity with the commentators, mobile-friendly graphics packages, optional live chat and the ability to scroll through scores and previous heats.”
Fans without a Facebook account will be forced to choose between biting the bullet and signing up in order to watch or stubbornly boycotting the WSL for the remainder of the season. At time of publication, every comment on the WSL’s announcement echoed the sentiments of Disqus user archboldian1983 who wrote, “So you are forcing surf fans to sign up for a a Social Media (sic) site that steals and sells user data?”
The full letter, which strikes an incredibly weird tone, is copied and pasted below:
WSL Fans,
We hope this finds you well and we hope that you’re enjoying the competition at the Corona Bali Protected. We’ve been fortunate to have great waves throughout the opening part of this season and it has resulted in some inspired surfing on both the men’s and women’s Tours.
Today we’re writing to highlight that we’re getting ready to transition our live event online broadcast to Facebook over the next few weeks. The full transition will take place at the 2018 Corona Open J-Bay (July 2 – 16), subject to continued successful testing.
There are many positives to our expanded Facebook partnership. Not only will you be able to enjoy the same level of quality you’re accustomed to from the WSL, but you’ll also have access to additional features to enhance your experience such as interactivity with the commentators, mobile-friendly graphics packages, optional live chat and the ability to scroll through scores and previous heats.
For those that currently tune-in to our events via our channels, if you’re already logged into Facebook, you’ll be redirected to the live stream with no additional steps required. If you’re not logged into Facebook, you will simply need to sign-up with your email to watch live event content.
