Major League Baseball will broadcast 25 games exclusively on Facebook Watch this season, the first such time a major North American sports league has aired its games only on a social network.
MLB Network will produce the broadcasted games, which primarily take place on weekday afternoons, beginning with an April 4 Philadelphia Phillies-at-New York Mets contest and an April 11 meeting between the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals.
Facebook live-streamed 20 games last season in a weekly Friday night time slot, but those were national simulcasts of a local broadcast whereas, in the 2018 partnership, the Facebook feed will replace local coverage and out-of-market access on platforms like mlb.