diff --git a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/MediaType.java b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/MediaType.java
index 5d0567d5f8..29343f7a96 100644
--- a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/MediaType.java
+++ b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/MediaType.java
@@ -184,6 +184,17 @@ public class MediaType extends MimeType implements Serializable {
 	 */
 	public final static String MULTIPART_FORM_DATA_VALUE = "multipart/form-data";
 
+	/**
+	 * Public constant media type for {@code text/event-stream}.
+	 * @see <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/eventsource/">Server-Sent Events W3C recommendation</a>
+	 */
+	public final static MediaType TEXT_EVENT_STREAM;
+
+	/**
+	 * A String equivalent of {@link MediaType#TEXT_EVENT_STREAM}.
+	 */
+	public final static String TEXT_EVENT_STREAM_VALUE = "text/event-stream";
+
 	/**
 	 * Public constant media type for {@code text/html}.
 	 */
@@ -244,6 +255,7 @@ public class MediaType extends MimeType implements Serializable {
 		IMAGE_JPEG = valueOf(IMAGE_JPEG_VALUE);
 		IMAGE_PNG = valueOf(IMAGE_PNG_VALUE);
 		MULTIPART_FORM_DATA = valueOf(MULTIPART_FORM_DATA_VALUE);
+		TEXT_EVENT_STREAM = valueOf(TEXT_EVENT_STREAM_VALUE);
 		TEXT_HTML = valueOf(TEXT_HTML_VALUE);
 		TEXT_MARKDOWN = valueOf(TEXT_MARKDOWN_VALUE);
 		TEXT_PLAIN = valueOf(TEXT_PLAIN_VALUE);
diff --git a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/codec/ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter.java b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/codec/ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter.java
index 0bef29e1fc..bfcbf0e66b 100644
--- a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/codec/ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter.java
+++ b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/codec/ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter.java
@@ -48,8 +48,6 @@ import org.springframework.util.MimeTypeUtils;
  */
 public class ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter implements HttpMessageWriter<Object> {
 
-	private static final MediaType TEXT_EVENT_STREAM = new MediaType("text", "event-stream");
-
 	private final List<Encoder<?>> dataEncoders;
 
 
@@ -65,20 +63,20 @@ public class ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter implements HttpMessageWriter<Objec
 
 	@Override
 	public boolean canWrite(ResolvableType elementType, MediaType mediaType) {
-		return mediaType == null || TEXT_EVENT_STREAM.isCompatibleWith(mediaType) ||
+		return mediaType == null || MediaType.TEXT_EVENT_STREAM.isCompatibleWith(mediaType) ||
 				ServerSentEvent.class.isAssignableFrom(elementType.getRawClass());
 	}
 
 	@Override
 	public List<MediaType> getWritableMediaTypes() {
-		return Collections.singletonList(TEXT_EVENT_STREAM);
+		return Collections.singletonList(MediaType.TEXT_EVENT_STREAM);
 	}
 
 	@Override
 	public Mono<Void> write(Publisher<?> inputStream, ResolvableType elementType, MediaType mediaType,
 			ReactiveHttpOutputMessage outputMessage, Map<String, Object> hints) {
 
-		outputMessage.getHeaders().setContentType(TEXT_EVENT_STREAM);
+		outputMessage.getHeaders().setContentType(MediaType.TEXT_EVENT_STREAM);
 
 		DataBufferFactory bufferFactory = outputMessage.bufferFactory();
 		Flux<Publisher<DataBuffer>> body = encode(inputStream, bufferFactory, elementType, hints);