PeopleTV expands Twitter live streaming with new series 'The Chatter'

Dive Brief:

Time Inc.'s PeopleTV announced in a news release that it will launch a new interactive series "The Chatter" for Twitter audiences. The half-hour nightly series is set to premier on April 16.
"The Chatter," available at @PeopleTV, will focus on the day's celebrity and entertainment news and trending topics. Viewers can engage with the show in real time through tweets, questions and polls. Advertising sponsorships and integration opportunities will be available and promoted across PeopleTV and Twitter's platforms.
Twitter began streaming PeopleTV programming in November and the channel now includes live breaking news, red carpet coverage and the series "People NOW." Future programming will add "The Jess Cagle Interview" featuring People and Entertainment Weekly's editorial director as well as red carpet coverage of the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Dive Insight:

Twitter has steadily ramped up its live streaming and video programming as a way to grow its user base and, more importantly, drive a fresh source of revenue as it struggles to monetize its platform. The social network reported that its U.S. user base shrunk during the first half of 2017, and last year also marked the first time the company experienced revenue declines since going public. At the same time, Time Inc. has been building up its digital video initiatives as its core magazine business continues to be hit hard in a generally bleak print industry; last year, it announced plans to create 50,000 videos for 150 new and existing franchises in 2017. Late last November, the publisher was acquired by the Meredith Corporation for $2.8 billion.

These shifts come as marketers are ramping up their spending on digital video advertising, particularly on mobile. Businesses are estimated to have spent $135 billion on online video last year — a number pegged at roughly 2x the amount they spent on TV commercials, according to Magisto.

Along with its PeopleTV partnership centered on entertainment news, Twitter has steadily created cross-vertical live-streaming programming collaborations with millennial-focused publishers like Buzzfeed and Vox Media, along with others. In December, Twitter joined forces with Bloomberg to launch TicToc, a live-streaming daily news channel that offers 24/7 global news coverage relying on original reporting by Bloomberg's journalists and information submitted by Twitter users and verified by Bloomberg editors.

In the sports realm, Twitter is teaming up with Fox Sports to live stream a show for the FIFA World Cup in June, with Snapchat showing game highlights. The deal could help Twitter gain a foothold in the increasingly lucrative live sports streaming market. It previously live streamed 10 Thursday night NFL games but Amazon took over those duties this season, reportedly paying $50 million for the content rights compared to the less than $10 million Twitter paid.