MLB ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH FACEBOOK

Don’t look now, but Facebook is taking over another facet of your life. The MLB announced today that a total of 25 games will be broadcasted exclusively on Facebook this season, starting with the Phillies v. Mets on April 4th. Facebook will be announcing the schedule one month at a time to allow for flexibility and will aim for mainly Wednesday afternoons. This move by Facebook is a big step towards bringing more live television onto its platform in an attempt to compete with streaming services like Amazon Prime who landed a deal with the NFL last season. There are still some details to be hammered out but the games will be produced by MLB Network, with commentary crews to be determined. The MLB is excited about the partnership as it is a great way to spread the game. Bringing games to a global platform like Facebook will bring the game to new fans all over the world. This also is another big win for streaming in general. More and more people are turning away from cable and heading to streaming services for most of their television watching needs. Sports is one of the few things that cable is still superior at. If this venture with Facebook is successful I would expect more streaming companies to try to create partnerships with the major leagues. And that would spell trouble for traditional tv companies.