Twitter inks new streaming deal with NFL after losing live games to Amazon

By Trevor Mogg Published May 12, 2017

NFL Action — Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock

Twitter must’ve been sorely disappointed to have lost out to Amazon recently when the Prime Video operator snatched away Thursday night NFL clashes in a deal thought to be worth around $50 million.

Keen to keep some form of NFL content on its platform, Twitter has inked a multi-year deal with the league to offer football fans a range of programming, much of it live. However, now that Amazon has its hands on live game coverage, there’ll be no such real-time on-field action streaming on Twitter anytime soon.

Recommended Videos

Instead, the social media company will stream a 30-minute, NFL-produced live digital show five days a week during the NFL season, which kicks off in September. The program will be hosted by “top NFL Network talent,” says a release, and will include breaking news, game highlights, key storylines, fantasy projections, team power rankings, and pre-game updates.

But that’s not all. The league said it’s going to use Twitter and Twitter-owned Periscope “to bring fans unique live pre-game access from each of its prime time game windows, as well as other key match-ups during the season.” Coverage is set to include everything from player warm-ups to sideline interviews, with the shows aiming to offer engaging behind-the-scenes footage on game days. Breaking news and game reviews will also feature.

The NFL’s Brian Rolapp said he expected the new daily live show to “quickly become some of the most popular programming on Twitter,” while the social media company’s Anthony Noto said he was excited that football fans around the world would now be able to access fresh NFL content on the platform.

News of the NFL deal comes little more than week after Twitter announced a ton of other new live-streaming coverage for its service, as the company seeks to boost its user base and ad revenue through such offerings. The new content offers original programming covering news and entertainment as well as a variety of sports.

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

News

Amazon and the NFL plan virtual games to understand real injuries

The NFL's Daniel Sorensen tries to tackle Darren Waller

NFL and AWS Team Up to Transform Player Health & Safety

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the NFL have teamed up to simulate entire football games with the goal of predicting and preventing player injuries using a new platform called Digital Athlete.

Gaming

Another one! Amazon could announce game-streaming service in 2020

green gaming report us gamers global warming climate change

Google Stadia just launched this week, and the game-streaming service has already been criticized for a poor game selection, sub-par performance, questionable pricing and business practices, and even for killing Chromecast Ultra units. These issues appear to be no worry to Amazon, however, as it appears the retail and tech behemoth is preparing to announce its own competing service in 2020.

CNET reported this week that Amazon will announce a game-streaming service next year, and that it has already begun recruiting staff from other major technology companies as it moves toward launch. Unsurprisingly, the plan is for the unnamed service to integrate with Twitch streaming and other Amazon services. Google heavily implemented YouTube into Stadia, with options to start a game from a streamer's save state or jump into their multiplayer session right from a stream. Neither of these features is available at launch, however.

Social Media

I paid Meta to ‘verify’ me — here’s what actually happened

In the fall of 2023 I decided to do a little experiment in the height of the “blue check” hysteria. Twitter had shifted from verifying accounts based (more or less) on merit or importance and instead would let users pay for a blue checkmark. That obviously went (and still goes) badly. Meanwhile, Meta opened its own verification service earlier in the year, called Meta Verified.

Mostly aimed at “creators,” Meta Verified costs $15 a month and helps you “establish your account authenticity and help[s] your community know it’s the real us with a verified badge." It also gives you “proactive account protection” to help fight impersonation by (in part) requiring you to use two-factor authentication. You’ll also get direct account support “from a real person,” and exclusive features like stickers and stars.