According to the reports reaching us from our sources, Facebook and Major League Baseball have made a deal which will guarantee that the social media has sole streaming rights to 25 regular season games in the year 2018. All of these games will be weekday afternoon games; therefore traditional TV networks will exert and exercise their hold on primetime and weekend play. Even at that, this is the very first time Facebook has been able to get a hold on streaming rights exclusive to the social media for regular season games from one of the major United States sports leagues, according to our sources. The first Facebook-only game will take place on the 4th of April, 2018 between Phillies and Mets.
It may come as a surprise that the viewing experience will not be something that will strike one as being exceptional since Major League Baseball Network will be in charge of producing the games. This means that one would get the normal presentation of games that are televised; however, that individual will be able to watch on mobile, desktop, and on TVs through the Facebook app. According to the reports from our sources, Facebook also has the ability to integrate “social integration and graphics during the broadcast.”
The deal also covers the fact that Major League Baseball will produce highlight packages for every regular season game in 2018 for Facebook Watch. Also, it will release video recaps every week for each and every team. Facebook and Major League Baseball will also update the monthly schedule of the games to be streamed. Last year, 20 Major League Basketball games were streamed by Facebook on its platform although then Facebook had no exclusiveness on those games. MLB team owners are rumoured to have approved this latest agreement nemine contradicente (MLB team owners are of a like mind with Facebook on the matter).
