After a laundry list of acquisitions including rights to several sports talk shows, concerts and video game tournaments, Twitter’s live streaming plan finally has a place to call home: Roku.
Starting today, you’ll be able to watch anything streaming live on Twitter on your big screen TV as long as you’re using a Roku device.
The announcement comes via Roku, who says Twitter is creating a channel to allow users to watch content in real time.
The Twitter app on Roku will offer several “channels” of programming, including original content produced by Twitter and live events in sports, entertainment, news and politics. You’ll also be able to find live commentary from your Twitter feed right inside the Twitter on Roku app – a neat feature that will allow you to see what friends, acquaintances and complete strangers are saying about the content as you’re watching it in real time.
What this means is Twitter on Roku could be a pretty powerful platform for livestream content. Want to watch the next presidential debate? Twitter will have it. How about live coverage of events like CES and E3? Those are very likely to be there, too.
Not only is this promising for cord cutters looking to stay abreast on what’s happening in the world, but it bodes well for Twitter’s livestreaming efforts as well – Roku has a huge install base and a relatively captive audience.
How much content are we talking?
Lots. According to Twitter, the social media company transmitted around 800 hours of livestreaming content to 45 million viewers in the first part of 2017. Half of that content was sports-related, close to a third was news and the rest was entertainment.
Make that content available on Roku – a platform that one in 10 Americans own – and Twitter might show Facebook a thing or two about how live streaming should be done.
The Twitter channel is available for free in the Roku Channel Store starting today and is accessible to anyone with a current-generation Roku device.
- Interested in a new Roku player? Check out our review of the Roku Premiere+
