Twitter, once the realm of 140 character marketing pitches, is venturing deeper into content delivery with the announcement of a range of streaming deals with major content producers.
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Twitter has announced partnerships with Live Nation, BuzzFeed, Bloomberg, Vox Media, MLB Advanced Media and more to provide streaming multimedia content on its platform.
Twitter’s initial content lineup includes news and newsertainment programs from providers such as Buzzfeed, who will create a daily morning show, and Bloomberg, who announced a 24/7 news stream on the service. Other content will come from companies such as Vox Media, who will create a weekly live show dedicated to gadgets.
Live Nation plans to broadcast concerts on the service, starting with the Zac Brown Band’s May 13th concert in Atlanta. As well, IMG Fashion will stream several runway-oriented shows, as well as providing live content from various and sundry Fashion Weeks around the world.
Sports fans will be serviced by a 24/7 channel produced by Silver Chalice that will present live and pre-recorded college sports games, highlight reels, and ESPN-type content. The WNBA plans to stream 20 live games on the service and Major League Baseball will have a weekly 3-hour news show with game highlights.
Advertisers will be able to purchase pre- and mid-roll ads on the new content channels through Twitter’s Amplify program. Longer pre-roll ads will be skippable, but users will be forced to view the mid-roll ads regardless of length.
The news comes amid Twitter’s previous live content delivery failure after the company failed to renew its deal to stream live NFL games. The company had secured a license from the NFL to stream 10 Thursday Night Football games last year, beating out competition from the likes of Yahoo, Facebook and Amazon.