Brief:

• Fox's new sitcom "Ghosted," which stars Adam Scott and Craig Robinson as paranormal investigators, will debut on Twitter before its broadcast premiere as part of a partnership between the network and the social media company, Variety reported. Twitter will stream the show at 9 p.m. ET on Sept. 21-24, and the broadcast will follow on Oct. 1. 
• Twitter also will stream a nightly pre-show for the Fox drama "Empire" on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. before its 8 p.m. broadcast. Last night, Twitter hosted a marathon of returning Fox comedy "The Mick." The streams appear on each show's official Twitter handle.
• Shannon Ryan, chief marketing officer of Fox Television Group, told Variety that the partnership with Twitter lets the network customize promotions for each series and connect directly with viewers.

Insight:

Twitter has been very active about getting more video content onto its platform, and is showing early signs of growing its audience. The company's live video audience grew 28% to 55 million people in Q2 2017 from the prior quarter with the addition of Major League Baseball games, Bloomberg News shows and Live Nation concerts. Twitter provided more than 1,200 hours of live premium video from existing and new content partners in Q2 2017, an increase from 900 hours in Q1 2017 and 600 hours in Q4 2016

In addition to the partnership with Fox, Twitter last week announced collaborations with broadcasters, journalists and event producers to bring video programming to the Asia Pacific region, Mediaweek reported. Most ambitious of all, Twitter is planning to start a 24-hour live news broadcast this fall in partnership with financial data provider Bloomberg.

While Twitter's audience grew by a disappointing 5% to 328 million monthly active users in Q2 2017 from a year earlier and its ad revenue fell, video advertising was cited as a bright spot, though the company didn't break out its sales by segment. Going forward, the platform will continue to face challenges from other competitors like Facebook, which is also getting into TV-like premium video with its newfangled Watch tab.

With the retail industry under pressure amid declining sales and record bankruptcies, all media companies will have to contend with cuts to ad budgets. Aegis Capital Internet analyst Victor Anthony last month warned that a "recession" is coming to the U.S. ad market after he reviewed earnings commentary from marketing giants Interpublic and WPP. Google and Facebook may be insulated from cuts in media budgets, while Snap and Twitter are more vulnerable, he said.