Facebook partners MLB to exclusively livestream 25 games
March 12, 2018
MLB has partnered Facebook to exclusively livestream 25 weekday afternoon games.
The games will be broadcasted in U.S. on Facebook Watch via the MLB Live show page. The package, MLB’s first digital-only national broadcast agreement, precludes teams from televising those games on their regional sports networks.
Facebook’s selection will come from among the nine games per season teams can lose from their local telecasts to national video partners, which include Fox and ESPN.
Verizon earlier signed a deal with the NBA to stream eight basketball games on Yahoo, and Amazon paid $50 million to stream NFL games to Prime members last season.
The games will be produced by the MLB Network for Facebook Watch, with interactive and social elements that differentiate them from live streaming.
Facebook’s first-month schedule includes Philadelphia-New York Mets on April 4, Milwaukee-St. Louis on April 11, Kansas City-Toronto on April 18 and Arizona-Philadelphia on April 26.
Facebook had a package of 20 non-exclusive Friday night games last year that began in mid-May.
