Written by Terry Collins at CNet.com
With Twitter striking out on streaming NFL football, it’s now shifting its focus back to baseball.
The social network on Wednesday released its schedule of live-streaming Major League Baseball games in April. The action starts this Friday as the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs take on the Milwaukee Brewers.
The weekly streams are part of a deal Twitter struck with MLB Advanced Media, baseball’s interactive arm, last season.
The free Friday night games will be available globally on mlb.twitter.com and at MLB’s Twitter page. The streams are a simulcast of the home team’s televised broadcast.
Here’s the list of games:
April 7 — Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:10 p.m. ET
April 14 –New York Mets at Miami Marlins, 7:10 p.m. ET
April 21 — Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 p.m. ET
April 28 — Cincinnati Reds at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 p.m. ET
Twitter’s MLB announcement comes a day after it lost the streaming rights to the NFL’s Thursday Night Football games this upcoming season to internet retail giant Amazon reportedly for $50 million. Twitter paid $10 million to stream its 10-game NFL package last season.
The social network said in a statement Wednesday the NFL was “a great partner” with live-streaming and will continue working with the league to provide other content including tweets, highlights and videos.
Besides baseball, Twitter also live-streams National Hockey League and National Lacrosse League games as well as National Basketball Association pregame shows.
