(62) Twitter to live stream NFL's Thursday night football

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/05/twitter-stream-nfl-thursday-night-football

 

Summary:

 

Twitter users will be able to watch live Thursday night American football games after the tech company became the surprise winner in a bidding war that included Amazon and Yahoo. Ten games from the NFL’s regular season will be broadcast on Twitter, as well as in-game highlights and live pre-game interviews on its streaming platform, Periscope. The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, added: “Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football. There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday night football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season.”

Key data/statistical information:

• The games will be available to people Twitter counts as users even if they are not registered, meaning a potential audience of 800 million
• Verizon will also retain the US mobile rights to stream all 16 games following a deal in 2010
• The move has surprised the tech industry, with Amazon tipped as the more likely buyer given its previous willingness to pay large sums for TV rights, such as the reported £160m it paid to secure the services of former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond
• Last year, Yahoo paid $20m to show the first NFL game of the season live online
• US tech site Recode has reported that the new deal is worth under $10m (£7.1m), with Twitter winning despite larger rivals bidding as much as $15m
• A tweet from Twitter’s investor relations account saying the deal would not affect financial guidance for 2016 provided earlier this year also suggest the deal is far smaller than the combined $450m NBC and CBS paid to each broadcast five games

What's my view?

This is evidence of the changes that are being made because of new and digital media. Twitter has taken advantage of its popularity and will do a live stream of the important football match. This means more and more people will be watching it on-line rather than traditionally watching it on the TV. This shows that this generation prefers to have things on-line as they view the internet as a global village (McLuhan) where they can share their opinions and ideologies on-line for people to see.