With the 2018 Major League Baseball a quarter of the way through the season, Facebook and the MLB reached a deal to stream 25 afternoon games on the social network. This means that you will be able to watch those 25 games from anywhere by simply logging into your Facebook account on either mobile, desktop or TV. The MLB games will be available for free through Facebook’s Watch Tab, which is the site’s video hub for original and live content, and can be found through the news feed.
Facebook has been building a portfolio of live sports content. This is the first time that a major U.S. professional sports league has agreed to show regular games exclusively on the social network. The partnership will kickoff with the game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets on Wednesday, April 4, 2018. The streaming deal between Major League Baseball and Facebook is for weekday afternoon games, that are mostly held on Wednesdays during the season.
Even though it is only for 25 regular season games, and not the playoffs, this is big for Facebook and positions them as a major media competitor. For the MLB, this deal expands an already growing partnership between the league and the social network. In 2017, MLB streamed one Friday game week but it was not a exclusive stream to Facebook, which now is exclusive. The MLB network will be handling the production of the games and will debut new graphics that is designed for fans to share and interact with while they are on Facebook.
Major League Baseball will also be producing specific curated content that they can distribute, including highlight packages from every single game and team specific recaps. These packages will also be on Facebook Watch for viewers and Baseball enthusiasts to consume.
Facebook did not bid bid for the National Football League’s Thursday Nigh package, which Amazon carried last season. This is just the beginning for Facebook on streaming professional sports and I expect to the social network do more of it in the future. Happy streaming.
