Twitter is getting serious about sports.
Less than a week after expanding its partnership with the NBA, Twitter on Monday announced plans to live stream weekly out-of-market games from Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League. The streams will be available for free for everyone in the US, even those who are not logged in to Twitter. A schedule of the games will be released at a later date.
"Twitter has become a crucial forum and engagement tool for hockey fans to enhance their NHL viewing experience and stay connected to the game on and off the ice," NHL Executive Vice President of digital media and strategic planning Stephen McArdle said in a statement. "We are excited that fans will now be able to enjoy live NHL games through our partnership with Twitter."
On top of that, Twitter has arranged for digital broadcast network 120 Sports to produce a new, multi-sports highlights show for the microblogging platform. Dubbed The Rally, the show will stream every night, exclusively on Twitter for US users.
The Rally will cover everything from college and professional to action and Olympic sports. It's been designed to "integrate with Twitter's platform, using Twitter-based data to determine live trending topics." It will also boast "interactive elements for instant conversation and analysis of the moments that matter most to sports fans," Twitter said in a news release.
Twitter last week announced plans to air a free, live NBA pregame show each week. The NBA is also planning one other exclusive Twitter show ahead of the 2016-17 season, but has not yet revealed any details about that one.