Twitter said it made deals to create live streaming content in the sports, news and entertainment genres.
Partners include the WNBA, PGA Tour, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, The Players Tribune, BuzzFeed News, Cheddar, the Verge, Live Nation, IMG Fashion and Propagate.
Twitter is counting on adding live video to its traditional messaging content to attract users and advertisers. The deals were announced during Twitter’s NewFront presentation in New York Monday.
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"We could not be prouder of the success we have achieved so quickly since launching live streaming premium content. Last quarter, we streamed over 800 hours of live premium content from leading brands across sports, esports, news, and entertainment," said Twitter COO Anthony Noto. "Adding these 12 new live deals tonight is a testament to the success of our only-on-Twitter experience, combining high quality streaming video with our only-on-Twitter conversation."
Twitter's global VP of clients solutions Matthew Derella added that "the rest of the month, you're going to see a lot of presentations. You're not going to see anyone that can give you the audience mindset, the most premium content, and do both at a massive and accelerating scale like Twitter can."
Here is some of the live content Twitter will be adding.
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Starting later this month the WNBA will live stream a weekly regular-season game on Twitter. There will be 20 games per season during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons. The webcasts will feature live action and conversation and comments on one screen.
In addition to the weekly live Major League Baseball games, Twitter will stream a new exclusive weekly three-hour whip-around show delivering highlights and storylines as the trend in real time.
A new 24-hour experience called Stadium will stream live integrating live college sporting events, highlights, classic games and live studio programming.
Twitter and The Players Tribune are creating #Verified, a forum for athletes to connect with fans during a live show featuring fan questions.
Twitter will expand its relationship with the PGA Tour to feature 360-degree video of the island hole at the PTC Sawgrass event later this month.
Twitter will stream Circuit Breaker, The Verge’s Gadget Show live weekly, hosted by Nilay Patel.
Morning Feed, a new morning news and current events show from BuzzFeed News will stream live on Twitter.
Opening Bell from Cheddar will stream live daily at 9 a.m. ET from the New York Stock Exchange. It joins Cheddar’s Closing Bell on Twitter.
Concerts from Live Nation will be streamed on Twitter along with other original content. The first show will feature the Zac Brown Band on May 13.
IMG Fashion will take Twitter users to runway shows and behind-the-scenes at Fashion Week. Propagate will bring Twitter users #WhatsHappening, a live daily entertainment driven primetime show that will include pop culture, music, TV and trending discussions from around the world.
