John Bazemore/AP
Shares of Facebook are rising after the company signed a multi-year deal with the National Football League to host highlights from all 256 regular season games, starting with the current 2017 season.
Facebook is up 0.37% to $163.48 on Tuesday following the news.
The social media giant is partnering with the NFL in its latest move to help promote the new "Watch" section of its platform. The section hosts longer-format videos from multiple content partners, the NFL being the newest. As a part of the deal, the NFL will produce content under several shows in the Watch section of Facebook.
In addition to the new Watch shows, the NFL will post highlight cuts of all the regular season games, as well as clips from the playoffs and Super Bowl. The league previously posted highlights to Facebook in 2014, but the deal ran its course by the following year.
Facebook plans to run midroll ads during some of the NFL's longer content, similar to its strategy with other Watch tab content.
The deal comes as Facebook faces investigatory pressure from lawmakers in Washington DC. In a live stream from his personal account, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, laid out a nine-point plan to improve the company's handling of foreign interference in political elections, including turning over ads paid for by Russia-linked entities to lawmakers.
Facebook is up 39.77% this year.
