Facebook in talks to live stream MLB games this season

Facebook is in talks with Major League Baseball to live stream games this season, reports Reuters. The deal would include at least one game per week, which could be accessed for free by users logged into the platform.

The move comes just a week after Facebook announced plans for a video-focused Apple TV app, as part of the social network’s efforts to push further into original programming—a strategy shared by several tech firms.

“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,” said sports media consultant Lee Berke. “It makes perfect sense that they would be going after name brand properties like the MLB.”

Facebook already has a deal in place with Univision Communications Inc., to live stream 46 matches from the Mexican soccer league Liga MX this year. Twitter, for its part, live-streamed 13 NFL games last season.

Source: Reuters