Twitter will start streaming Thursday night NFL games, according to Bloomberg.
The move is a bid to reach cord-cutting generations who are moving away from consuming content in a linear fashion in front of a TV or Web browser, to an on-demand model that sees people keeping up with news and watching content on a whole range of other sources.
On Twitter’s side, it clearly hopes the addition of streaming could help give people new ways (and new reasons) to interact with its platform. It’s always had a problem getting new users to stick around, and this could help alleviate that, for football fans at least.
We’ve contacted Twitter for confirmation of the partnership, and further details on how it could work and will update if we hear back. Presumably, any NFL live-streaming would be delivered via the Twitter-owned Periscope service – again, potentially attracting new users to the platform.
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Updated, April 5: The initial reports have now been confirmed by the NFL, which says:
“The NFL and Twitter will provide free, live streaming video of Thursday Night Football without authentication to the over 800 Million registered and non-registered users worldwide on the Twitter platform on mobile phones, tablets, PCs and connected TVs.
In addition to live streaming video of NFL action, the partnership includes in-game highlights from TNF as well as pre-game Periscope broadcasts from players and teams, giving fans an immersive experience before, during and after games.
With this partnership, the NFL has again extended its digital presence, making the most valuable content in sports and entertainment available across multiple digital platforms free for all users.”
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