Dive Brief:
- Already in the pro sports live streaming business with its NFL deal, Twitter is looking to expand its presence in the space.
- Sources familiar with the discussions told Recode that Twitter is in talks with the NBA, MLS and Turner for additional live streaming sports deals.
- Twitter is already set to live stream 10 Thursday Night Football games for the NFL this fall, testing its live streaming technology for the first time last week by broadcasting ESPN's Wimbledon coverage.
Dive Insight:
Twitter is in a rough patch, but CEO Jack Dorsey is looking for new ways to attract users and marketing dollars. Twitter has been supplanted in the race for daily active users by onetime upstart Snapchat, but live video streaming might be a gamechanger for the platform.
Competing with Facebook's new 'Live' video feature, Twitter has made a concerted push into live video this year, rolling out a live video button and announcing a deal with the NFL to live stream 10 football games.
Even as other social media platforms gain traction, Twitter still carries a certain cachet as a second screen during live events, such as professional sporting events. Live sports is one of last bastions of on-demand real-time video viewing, and marketers have proven time and time again that audience is worth a premium ad buy.
Twitter's live streaming future may depend on how it performs with NFL games this fall. To gain the rights to the NFL games, Twitter paid $10 million. The live streaming deal came after a single game experiment by the NFL last season on Yahoo.
