Baseball fans look set to be able to watch one match each week on Facebook for the 2017 season.
MLB look set to follow in the footsteps of the NFL by broadcasting games by non-traditional means. In the 2016 season, each Thursday night game was broadcast on a Twitter live stream.
According to Reuters, Facebook are interested in broadcasting games in a bid to gain a foothold in the expanding market. Earlier this month, it was announced that Facebook will stream 46 Liga MX games in the forthcoming season.
The Mexican top-tier matches will be specifically broadcast in English. Liga MX matches regularly draw bigger viewing numbers on Spanish language television stations in America, compared to their English language counterparts.
"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 has yet to be signed, with no details of what games may be broadcast. With a global audience of over 1.8 billion monthly active users, a weekly game being broadcast for free to a global audience can see the popularity of the sport increase.
Facebook's battle with Twitter for live sporting rights will be one of the most interesting broadcasting battles in the near future. Earlier this year, the PGA Tour also announced they were to broadcast over 70 hours of coverage from over 30 tournaments in the 2017 season.
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