It’s not live game rights, but it’s still a newsworthy deal for Twitter and the NFL as the league and social media company agreed on an extension to their current deal. It’s actually a slight content expansion with new live programming as well as highlights and original content.
Twitter was one of the first companies when it came to games on a digital platform. It was an obvious business play for millennials and cord cutters who were moving away from traditional consumption patterns. The deal only lasted a year, but the NFL had enough proof of concept to take those digital rights out into the market. Since then, the NFL has sold rights to Amazon and continues to work with Yahoo!.
Now it’s time to move shoulder content to the second screen. A bunch of companies are going with the original content strategy. Live games will always outrate anything before or after the game, but it makes sense to try and advertise to the viewers who hang around on social media after the final whistle. In a few years, the NFL will want as much live content on digital consumption channels as it has on cable or satellite television now. If the market is moving there, the NFL will move with its viewers.
The more experience the NFL gets the better because someday one of these tech companies may want full exclusive digital rights. They are sitting on a bunch of cash and they are getting into the content game. The sports business world has said this for a while, but it remains true: at some point Amazon, Apple, Alphabet or Facebook will be bidding on sports right in competition with the current CBSes, ESPNs, and FOXes. Think of this Twitter deals as their first run at pre-game shows.
