Facebook Inc.has backed out of the bidding processfor live-streaming Thursday games of the National Football League next season,Bloomberg News reported April 1, citing a source familiar with the details.

While the social network had expressed interest in livestreaming the NFL games, the source said the NFL's traditional advertisingmodel did not appeal to Facebook, which wanted its live videos to be ad free.Facebook was also not interested in streaming the early morning London gamesthat are reportedly included in the deal.

Meanwhile, VerizonCommunications Inc., Yahoo!Inc. and Amazon.comInc. are among the companies that are thought to be interested inacquiring the rights to the Thursday games.