Written by Alina Selyukh at NPR.com
The NFL has struck a deal with Twitter to live-stream, for free, the 2016 season of Thursday Night Football online through the social media site.
For the NFL, this is a push to reach the growing cohort of people who might not have a cable subscription. For Twitter, it might prove to be a major win in its ongoing challenge to attract and keep new users.
It’s unclear what exactly the game stream will look like — we know the games will be presented on twitter.com and the Twitter mobile app, but Twitter isn’t sharing any further specifics for now. Other companies that were considered in competition for the streaming rights included Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon and Verizon.
The NFL and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, confirmed the news Tuesday on Twitter, though they didn’t disclose the price tag or other terms of the deal. The deal is rumored to be around $10 million to $15 million.
NFL spokesman Alex Riethmiller confirms to NPR that Twitter’s bid was, in fact, not the highest that the league received. But he says the NFL liked Twitter’s reach and demographics as well as how the platform complemented broadcasts, adding that “we have worked with them for several years with success.”
As Bloomberg reports, the NFL has streamed some games in the past, but this marks a first season-long streaming deal in addition to its regular TV and cable broadcasts:
“The league is using Thursday night games, which draw smaller audiences than the contests on Sundays and Mondays, to experiment with different kinds of media, distribution models and technologies. By the time the NFL’s biggest broadcast contracts expire in 2021, it will be prepared to sell a broad array of digital rights — and make more money.”
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