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Facebook (FB) to Collaborate with MLB for Live Streaming?

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Per media reports, Facebook Inc. is in talks with Major League Baseball (MLB) to live stream games on its platform.

There was no official word from either of the parties but reports suggest that Facebook is mulling on live streaming one game per week.

Streaming live sports is one of the most lucrative opportunities as it helps to boost engagement levels (especially millennials) and brings more advertisers. All social media sites are scrambling to get more and more sports oriented live streaming on their platform.

Last year, Facebook had bid for National Football league (NFL) streaming rights but eventually Twitter won the streaming rights. In fact, Twitter was on a signing spree last year and inked deals with the likes of NBA and PGA. On the other hand, Facebook live streamed some basketball and table tennis matches on its platform.

Facebook is aggressively promoting “Live” in order to boost its top line further. Facebook is trying to bring more video content to attract more ad dollars. Ad revenues contribute over 95% to Facebook’s total revenue. It intends to capture the opportunity presented by ever increasing video viewing on social media platforms. At its last earnings call, Facebook said that video has emerged as a “megatrend” on the same lines as mobile.

Last year, it signed deals with media houses and Internet celebrities to churn out more content for its live platform and added a host of new features to Facebook Live. Also, recently, it brought on board an ex-MTV executive, Mina Lefevre, to increase original live video content on the platform.

Recently, Facebook collaborated with Univision Communications Inc. to live stream 46 Liga MX games for an undisclosed amount. Live streaming of these games (also the playoffs) will be available only in the U.S. However, reportedly, live streaming of these games at present will be ad free as Facebook works out an ad  revenue model.

Zacks Rank and Share Price Movement

At present, Facebook has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Moreover, we note that Facebook has outperformed the Zacks categorized Internet Services industry in the last one year. The company’s shares increased 24.62% compared with the industry’s gain of 14.06%.

Stocks to Consider

Better-ranked stocks in the wider technology space are Texas instruments Inc. (TXN - Free Report) and Netflix Inc. (NFLX - Free Report) . Texas Instruments sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) while Netflix carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

In the trailing four quarters, Texas Instruments and Netflix recorded a positive average earnings surprise of 7.09% and 141.35%, respectively.

 

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