Twitter Partners With NFL For Daily NFL Show, Pregame Video Coverage

Twitter lost out on broadcast rights for this season's National Football League games, but the social media service still will have plenty of football content. Twitter announced Thursday it has partnered with the NFL on a multiyear deal to host pre-game coverage and a separate live show on its network.

Pregame coverage will be provided on Twitter and Periscope for prime-time games and other major matchups. Coverage features include sideline interviews and watching pregame warmups. Twitter also will feature a half-hour hour show airing five days a week during the NFL season. The show, which will feature NFL Network talent, features highlights, news, and analysis of teams and players. The NFL will continue to showcase clips and highlights on Twitter, extending a previous partnership.

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In a statement, Twitter chief operating officer Anthony Noto praised the partnership between the NFL and Twitter.

“We are very excited to offer football fans around the world even more content on Twitter from the NFL,” Noto said. “This new multiyear collaboration will bring compelling live studio programs that discuss what's happening in the NFL, unique behind the scenes live broadcasts before games and the best NFL highlights to Twitter, alongside the real-time NFL conversation.”

Twitter previously broadcast NFL games during the 2016 season, but lost the rights for the upcoming NFL season to Amazon. The online retailer paid an estimated $50 million for the rights to 10 Thursday Night Football games, beating Twitter’s previous $10 million deal.

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The extensive partnership with the NFL is Twitter’s latest move to bolster its video offerings. Twitter announced plans earlier this year to partner with Bloomberg on video programming and also announced a slate of Twitter-exclusive original shows from groups and companies, including the MLB, Buzzfeed and Vox Media. Twitter also launched an app to showcase its video offerings on digital video players like the Roku.

Twitter hopes a deeper catalog of video programming can improve its bottom line. In its latest earnings call, Twitter reported improved user growth rates but a continuing slide in year-over-year revenue growth.

For many social media companies, the prospect of additional ad revenue and user growth has also led to an increased focus on video and original content. Companies ranging from Snapchat to Facebook plan to debut original shows and video content on their networks and have met with partners, including major TV channels and actors. With these types of exclusives, they also double as a bid to keep users engaged on a respective social media network for longer periods of time.