Cord-cutters eager to stream free programming can soon tune into an unexpected _ albeit instantly recognizable _ name for news, sports and entertainment coverage.
I'm talking, of course, about Twitter, which earlier this month trotted out 12 newly cemented media partnerships that, should they come to fruition, will produce a considerable amount of live content, all streamed for free through the social networking service and its TV apps. I'm talking hundreds of hours of original shows and live sporting events.
Take Twitter's upgraded relationship with the PGA Tour, which will showcase championship-caliber golf live on Twitter later this month. Then, there's the 24-hour Bloomberg-produced breaking news network launching in the fall. Also, on tap is a daily pop culture series, called "#WhatsHappening," from the production company Propagate. Other streaming Twitter-TV partners include the WNBA, Live Nation, BuzzFeed and the MLB.
It's enough to make the non-Twitter user (especially those without a classic cable TV bundle) rethink that status, which is exactly the point.
As far as social networks go, Twitter has been lapped by Instagram and crushed by Instagram's parent company, Facebook. The two services reach 700 million people and 1.86 billion people around the world every month, respectively, compared to just 328 million people by Twitter.
The ongoing debate as to whether Twitter, the tweeting network, is for everyone has clearly been decided _ it is not. And that makes it tricky for Twitter to sell ads to companies wanting as many eyeballs as possible.
Except _ here's the thing _ pretty much everyone, everywhere enjoys some form of television, whether it's the traditional variety or the YouTube kind. So instead of having to convince folks on the merits of the tweet, Twitter, by putting TV in the timeline, is falling back on a more sensible proposition than real-time information.
The company already claims an attentive audience of 45 million video viewers (55 percent of whom are under 25) who have tuned into more than 800 million of hours of premium live streaming video like The Grammy or SAG awards red carpet shows. And last year it released streaming video-only apps for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Xbox One. All are free and don't require an account, making them accessible to folks who just want to tune into TV-like content as opposed to catch the 140-character musings of wannabe pundits.
Still, it's hard to say how these just-announced deals will play out _ or if shows will air at all. Twitter's live TV ambitions, currently on display at what's called the Digital Content NewFronts, are semi-reliant on interest from advertisers, though the company did say that Wendy's is signed on as a sponsor for the BuzzFeed morning show (aptly named "MorningFeed"), and Nike is supporting the PGA Tour's Twitter material.
Blending familiar content with bleeding edge ideas, Twitter, the alternative streaming TV network, could certainly work to capture viewers in transition _ as in everyone from brand-new cord-cutters to cord-shavers paring back on cable, and, of course, those accidentally anti-establishment cord-nevers who live on their smartphones.
Then again, this is Twitter. It's a service more famous for chaos than consistency, and that means success is far from a given.
