The scumbags at Facebook will stream exclusive live Major League Baseball games for the first time this year, mostly on Wednesday & Thursday afternoons -- starting with Mets / Phillies tomorrow. MLB reports:
The Phillies and Mets will become a small part of sports media history on Wednesday when they participate in MLB's first digital-only national regular-season game broadcast. The afternoon game at Citi Field will air in the United States exclusively on Facebook Watch, a video platform that launched last August.
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Scott Braun, analysts Cliff Floyd and John Kruk, and in-game reporter Alexa Datt on the call. The broadcast crew will take a social-first approach and interact with the audience throughout the broadcast to bring the ballpark experience to Facebook.
The idea of a streaming game became reality last May, when MLB and Facebook partnered to live stream simulcasts of participating teams' local television broadcasts. The concept is now being expanded, with MLB Network's Emmy-winning team producing 25 games over the course of the season exclusively for Facebook. The games will take place primarily on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, and local TV networks will not air them.
"Community and conversation are central to both baseball and Facebook, and MLB Network's innovative broadcasts will bring these interactive and social elements of the game to life to fans around the world in new ways on our platform," Dan Reed, Facebook head of global sports partnerships, said in a statement.
Reports put Facebook's future spending on live sports licensing in the range of a few billion dollars.
So, of course, Comcast will be refunding money to SNY customers, right?
[Boomer & Gio]
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