Twitter lost out on a chance to broadcast live NFL games for the second season in a row, but the social media company will still host exclusive pro football content this year.
Twitter and the NFL on Thursday announced a new multi-year deal for several programs to be aired through Periscope and Twitter. Twitter will be home to a 30-minute daily studio show with top analysts from the NFL Network, as well as a pre-game show before primetime Thursday, Sunday and Monday games that will include player warm-ups and sideline interviews.
“This new multi-year collaboration will bring compelling live studio programs that discuss what’s happening in the NFL, unique behind the scenes live broadcasts before games, and the best NFL highlights to Twitter, alongside the real-time NFL conversation,” Twitter COO Anthony Noto said in a statement.
Twitter paid a reported $10 million to air 10 Thursday Night Football games last season. The company said games averaged an audience of 3.5 million unique viewers per game, and Twitter called its NFL partnership “the major highlight of the fourth quarter,” in its letter to shareholders following its Q4 earnings report.
Twitter put in a bid to again broadcast games this season, but Amazon swooped in with a bid of $50 million, five times the amount Twitter paid for its broadcast rights last season. The games will stream on Amazon’s Prime Video app and will be available exclusively to Amazon Prime members, who pay a $99/year fee for two-day shipping on millions of items, as well as a host of perks.
The multi-year NFL partnership announcement comes a week after Twitter’s first-ever Digital Content NewFronts that included more than a dozen new live streaming content deals, including partnerships with the NFL, MLB and WNBA.
