Facebook and MLB Agree to Live Stream 20 Games This Season
Facebook is getting a piece of the live sports streaming action: Major League Baseball (MLB) and Facebook announced the social network will live stream 20 Friday games during the 2017 season. The first game is tonight's matchup between the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds, starting at 7:10 PM ET.
Financial terms were not revealed. Fans will need to stay tuned for future game information, because neither party has announced the schedule for the other 19 games. Fans should look MLB's Facebook page for streams and information. Streams will come from the local broadcast rights-holder and will not be blacked out in local markets.
Speaking at a press event in New York City, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said, "Probably the most important single announcement [from the Owners' Meetings] is we've done an agreement with Facebook," MLB.com reported. "It's really important for us in terms of experimenting with a new partner in this area. We are really excited about this."
In April, Twitter and MLB announced a deal to live stream one game per week. While those games initially streamed on Fridays, they will now stream on Tuesdays.
This isn't MLB's first video experiment with Facebook: in 2011, it live streamed a few spring training games on team Facebook pages.
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