Okay, why am I blogging about NFL football in April? The Super Bowl was two months ago. The regular season is five months away. But Twitter has gotten involved with the NFL in a major way.
Twitter won the rights to show NFL football games live on their social media site. They beat out tech heavyweights Yahoo, Verizon, and Amazon. Starting this upcoming season, Twitter will stream 10 Thursday night football games for free. Twitter stockholders have already responded. Their shares gained two percent. They’re already making up ground for the 26% they lost so far in 2016. It’s been Twitter’s dream for it’s service to discuss live events as they happen. The NFL knows more fans are streaming games. Twitter is expected to broadcast these games through their Moments feature. Obviously, Thursday night football isn’t as popular as the traditional Sunday or Monday night football. So Twitter takes advantage of this growing trend on the ground floor. Twitter knows in 2021, current broadcasting contracts will be up. They will resale rights. Twitter wants in on that sale. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says Twitter’s role centers around world events, bringing live information about these events and sharing information about these events.
Dorsey should be very pleased with this new deal. The NFL is the most popular sporting entity in the United States of America. As Twitter celebrates their 10th anniversary this year, this is huge for them. I think celebrities post so much on Twitter that regular people think Twitter is just for celebrities only. That mentality can easily drive Twitter membership down. But the NFL will easily pick those numbers up. Now that Twitter will broadcast NFL games on Thursday, that gets their foot in the door for Sunday broadcasting in 2021. Twitter had better advertise this to the moon if they want be in the 2021 conversation. Could the NFL rights be the best thing that ever happened to Twitter?