Facebook will livestream 47 college basketball games as its live sports efforts grow
Facebook is streaming live college basketball games this season as it tries to impress users with high-end video in its new Watch tab.
The games feature a variety of divisions and even includes some conference games from teams in the Big Ten, the Pac-12, and the ACC Coastal Division.
Facebook gained the streaming rights through Stadium, a 24/7 sports network that has previously worked with Facebook and Twitter to stream college football games. Stadium will also produce a weekly live studio show on college basketball exclusively for Facebook Watch. The 30-minute show will air every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET starting Nov. 29.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Facebook is paying Stadium, according to Recode.
Facebook's deal with Stadium is its latest effort to attract more user attention and advertising dollars with live sports. But the battle over digital rights to sports games is fierce. For the last year, Facebook and Twitter have competed for similar deals. Twitter entered premium live video by scoring the rights to 10 of the National Football League's Thursday night games, beating Facebook and Amazon in 2016. Amazon won for the 2017 season.
One of Facebook's biggest wins of the last year was streaming more than a dozen matches from European soccer's top tournament, the Champions League, in partnership with Fox Sports. Facebook also streamed regular season matches of American soccer through a partnership with Major League Soccer and Univision Deportes. Both Facebook and Twitter streamed some Major League Basketball games.
Here's the full schedule:
Nov. 16, 2017: Belmont at Middle Tennessee, 7:30 p.m. ET
Nov. 19, 2017: Saint Mary’s at San Jose State, 8:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 21, 2017: Florida Gulf Coast at Middle Tennessee, 7:30 p.m. ET
Nov. 24, 2017: Minnesota vs UMass, 12:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 24, 2017: Alabama vs BYU, 2:30 p.m. ET
Nov. 25, 2017: BYU vs UMass, 2:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 25, 2017: Minnesota vs Alabama, 5:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 25, 2017: Southern Utah at UNLV, 10:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 28, 2017: Brown at Rhode Island, 7:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 28, 2017: Davidson at Charlotte, 7:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 29, 2017: Eastern Kentucky at Western Kentucky, 8:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 29, 2017: Illinois State at Nevada, 10:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 30, 2017: Memphis at UAB, 8:00 p.m. ET
Nov. 30, 2017: New Mexico State at UTEP, 10:00 p.m. ET
Dec. 1, 2017: Pittsburgh vs. Duquesne, 7:00 p.m. ET
Dec. 3, 2017: Bradley at San Diego State, 6:00 p.m. ET
Dec. 5, 2017: Wake Forest at Charlotte, 7:00 p.m. ET
Dec. 9, 2017: Mississippi at Middle Tennessee, 6:00 p.m. ET
Dec. 9, 2017: Washington State at UTEP, 9:00 p.m. ET
Dec. 19, 2017: UC Davis at Nevada, 10:00 p.m. ET
Dec. 22, 2017: Northern Colorado at UNLV, 10:00 p.m. ET
Dec. 23, 2017: Harvard at George Washington, 12:00 p.m. ET
Dec. 30, 2017: Middle Tennessee at UAB, 5:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 4, 2018: Pacific at Saint Mary’s, 10:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 9, 2018: Dayton at Richmond, 7:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 10, 2018: Wyoming at New Mexico, 9:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 17, 2018: Richmond at VCU, 7:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 17, 2018: Utah State at Boise State, 9:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 20, 2018: Saint Louis at UMass, 2:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 20, 2018: Saint Mary’s at Pacific, 10:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 24, 2018: Rhode Island at Fordham, 7:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 27, 2018: UTEP at Middle Tennessee, 7:00 p.m. ET
Jan. 31, 2018: La Salle at Davidson, 7:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 1, 2018: Middle Tennessee at ODU, 8:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 8, 2018: Saint Mary’s at Loyola Marymount, 10:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 10, 2018: ODU at LA Tech, 7:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 17, 2018: Middle Tennessee at LA Tech, 7:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 21, 2018: Duquense at St. Bonaventure 7:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 22, 2018: LA Tech at UTEP, 9:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 22, 2018: Pepperdine at Saint Mary’s, 10:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 24, 2018: UAB at Middle Tennessee, 7:00 p.m. ET
Mar. 3, 2018: La Salle at Saint Joseph’s, 2:00 p.m. ET
Mar. 7, 2018: Mountain West Conference 1st round - #8 vs. #9, 2:00 p.m. ET
Mar. 7, 2018: Mountain West Conference 1st round - #7 vs. #10, 4:30 p.m. ET
Mar. 7, 2018: Mountain West Conference 1st round - #6 vs. #11 7:00 p.m. ET
Mar. 8, 2018: Conference-USA Quarterfinal Game, 7:30 p.m. ET
Mar. 8, 2018: Conference-USA Quarterfinal Game, 10:00 p.m. ET
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Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
