You might be able to watch MLB games on Facebook this year
Facebook is reportedly in "advanced" talks to bring Major League Baseball streaming to the social media platform, Reuters reports. "Facebook is aggressively going after sports content and they are now one of a number of competitors to traditional media outlets that are going after sports programming," sports media consultant Lee Berke told Reuters. "It makes perfect sense that they would be going after name brand properties like the MLB."
The deal on the table would see Facebook stream one MLB game live per week during the 2017 season, although it isn't clear yet which games those would be. In return, MLB would have access to Facebook's massive young audiences, consultants explained.
Facebook has streamed basketball, soccer, and table tennis matches to date. In a deal with Univision, Facebook also plans to stream 46 matches by the Mexican soccer league Liga MX this year. Facebook's streaming competitor, Twitter, has a deal with the National Football League.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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