Facebook To Show MLB Games Live on Friday

(Reuters) -- Rival U.S. internet firms are racing for similar programming. Twitter Inc announced an agreement this month with the WNBA to show professional women's basketball, and last month Amazon.com Inc said it would stream men's professional football in a deal with the NFL.

For the baseball broadcast, Facebook said it will use a feed from a participating team's local broadcast rightsholder.

"Baseball games are uniquely engaging community experiences, as the chatter and rituals in the stands are often as meaningful to fans as the action on the diamond," Dan Reed, Facebook's head of global sports partnerships, said in a statement.

"By distributing a live game per week on Facebook, Major League Baseball can re-imagine this social experience on a national scale," he said.

Facebook says it has some 182 million daily active users in the United States and Canada.