Twitter's latest play is to live-stream sports to your screen

NFL

Twitter is broadening its horizons, and its next play is to stream Thursday Night Football games for free.

We're talking American NFL football here, in case you Brits hadn't worked it out yet, with Twitter securing an exclusive partnership that will see it broadcasting 10 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by NBC and CBS.

Streaming will take place over the course of this year's NFL Regular Season, which kicks off in September.

Twitter will also be streaming in-game highlights and pre-game Periscopes, but most important is the fact that it will be streaming the entire games too – a first for the social network.

"Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football", said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

For Twitter, this is a way of bringing new users into the fold, while the NFL realises that fans are relying less and less on traditional means of viewing. Right now we don't know how much Twitter paid to secure the rights.

"Twitter is live, Twitter is real time," were CEO Jack Dorsey's recent words on the social network. This latest play is certainly fitting with that idea, as the company tries to find new ways to remedy slow user growth.

Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.


Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.