NEW YORK—Baseball season is almost here, and with it comes the traditions we all know and love; the smell of fresh cut crass, the crack of the bat, and a weekly game available on Facebook. The latter is a new addition to the 2018 baseball season, as MLB and Facebook are expanding the partnership they began in 2017 that will now see Facebook produce and broadcast a weekly game—25 in total—that will exclusively be distributed on Facebook Watch in the U.S. via the MLB Live show page.
The weekly afternoon games will be produced by MLB Network’s production team for Facebook Watch and will be available across supported devices, including mobile phones and connected televisions. MLB Network is planning to showcase new in-game production elements designed for watching, sharing and interacting on Facebook.
Specially curated content that goes along with each game broadcast will be produced and distributed by MLB, including on-demand highlight packages for all regular season games and club-specific weekly recap packages for all 30 teams. These will also be available on Facebook.
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Details on broadcast talent and social integrations will be announced at a later date.
The premiere of the weekly broadcast will be on April 4 with a matchup of the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets at 1:10 p.m. ET. The complete schedule for April has already been announced and is as follows: Milwaukee Brewers vs. St. Louis Cardinals, April 11 at 1:15 p.m.; Kansas City Royals vs. Toronto Blue Jays, April 18 at 4:07 p.m.; and Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Philadelphia Phillies, April 26 at 1:05 p.m. Each additional monthly broadcast schedule will be announced during the season.
Fans can add games to their Watchlists by following the MLB Live show page.
