SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Social media network, Twitter has lost the right to live stream NFL ‘Thursday Night Games’, as the league chooses Amazon as its new content streaming partner.
Updating league stakeholders, NFL governance informed that Amazon, the world’ largest digital retailer had won the right to stream 10 NFL Thursday night games for season 2017/18.
US business news sources report that the NFL’s governance accepted a $50 million offer for the streaming rights, representing a fivefold increase on the $10 million Twitter paid for the content in 2016.
In April 2016, Twitter secured its 10 game Thursday night contract with the NFL, as the social media company moved to increase its live video content with a focus on sports partnerships. At the time, Twitter had beaten Yahoo, Amazon and Verizon Global for the streaming rights.
However, US sports insiders have detailed that the social network ‘failed to find an audience’ for its NFL match streams with viewing figures underwhelming Twitter governance.
Twitter detailed that it was still committed to promoting live content on its network stating that it had created over 40 live streaming partnership in 2016.
New NFL streaming partner Amazon, will likely broadcast NFL Thursday Night matches through its Amazon Prime subscription service. Like former incumbent Twitter, Amazon believes that live sports content can be a key asset in growing audiences and new consumers.
