Facebook gets exclusive rights to stream 25 MLB afternoon games, making MLB first league to air season games solely on Facebook; sources say price ~$30M-$35M
you won't be able to watch them anywhere else on TV or online: https://www.recode.net/... Jessica Lessin / @jessicalessin : It's stunning how little money this is for Facebook. http://www.bloomberg.com/... Sleeping Giants / @slpng_giants : So now we can expect Russian ads on baseball games. Great. http://twitter.com/... Eric Fisher / @ericfishersbj : MLB, Facebook strike new deal in which FB gets 25-game package of weekly exclusive games - baseball's first digital-only national broadcasts. Games will air on weekday afternoons. See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook's MLB relationship has been escalating in exclusivity: after a non-exclusive deal for 20 Friday night games last season grew out of early streaming talks, the platform now takes a weekly package no one else can air — TV or online. The reported ~$30M–$35M price is strikingly small for national exclusivity, which is exactly why observers like Jessica Lessin flagged how little money this costs Facebook.
The deal also marks a reversal of sorts: Facebook previously backed off bidding for NFL Thursday games because the traditional ad model blocked commercial-free streams, but it had since built a sports beachhead with a multiyear NFL highlights deal for Facebook Watch. Exclusive live games are the next rung, and MLB — with low-stakes weekday afternoon inventory — is the test case.
First-order effects
- MLB becomes the first major US league to place full season games solely on a social platform, forcing fans of those 25 matchups onto Facebook Watch and giving Facebook its first truly exclusive live sports inventory.
- The ~$30M–$35M price sets a visible benchmark for how cheaply a league will sell digital-only national exclusivity — far below what traditional broadcast packages command.
Second-order effects
- Rivals that were already circling sports rights — Twitter, Snap, and Amazon, all of whom bid alongside Facebook for World Cup highlight rights — now face pressure to match exclusivity rather than non-exclusive simulcasts, likely inflating their own bids elsewhere.
- Other leagues watching the price point can shop similar low-demand windows (weekday afternoons, off-nights) to tech platforms as incremental revenue without cannibalizing their core TV deals.
Third-order effects
- If cheap digital-exclusive windows prove viable for leagues and acceptable to fans, sports rights begin structurally unbundling: premium marquee games stay on TV while secondary inventory migrates to platforms, eroding the all-or-nothing bundle that underpinned broadcast fees.
- Brand safety becomes a live issue for advertisers on social-streamed games — Sleeping Giants' reaction about ads adjacent to baseball streams previews the scrutiny platforms face when they own the broadcast itself.
The trend: Live sports rights are fragmenting from exclusive TV bundles into cheap, platform-exclusive digital windows, with social video companies buying their way up from highlights to full games.