Update 5/1 at 8:00 p.m. ET: Twitter on Monday evening officially announced live streaming deals with Bloomberg and 11 other organizations covering sports, news, and entertainment content.
Twitter said these new collaborations will bring "hundreds of hours of new exclusive live original programming, live games and events, live syndications, extensions of existing live deals and new always-on live streaming premium content to the platform."
That includes a weekly WNBA games during the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons; a new 3-hour weekly MLB program (in addition to the weekly live MLB games that are streaming on Twitter this season); and a live show from The Players Tribune called #Verified featuring "athletes answering fan questions and sharing their insight, reactions, and timely takes on important topics on and off the field." Also on tap for sports fans is a new "original, fully programmed, 24/7 linear experience" from Stadium covering "exclusive live collegiate sporting events, extensive highlights, classic games, and daily live studio programming." Twitter is also expanding its live streaming partnership with PGA Tour, which will live stream 360-degree video of the famous 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass during The Players Championship from May 11 to 14 on Periscope and Twitter.
As for news content, Bloomberg this fall will launch the "first-ever" 24/7 breaking news network on Twitter, the microblogging service confirmed. Meanwhile, The Verge, BuzzFeed News, and Cheddar also plan to launch live Twitter shows.
Live Nation will air select concerts and original content exclusively on Twitter, starting with a live stream of Zac Brown Band on May 13. IMG Fashion this fall plans to launch a new live program "consisting of exclusive runway shows and behind-the-scenes Fashion Week content… from New York, Milan, Paris, London and beyond." Finally, Propagate will launch a new live daily show called #WhatsHappening covering "every side of pop culture, music, binge-worthy television, celebrity Tweets, and top trending discussions as they unfold."
Original Story: Twitter and Bloomberg are teaming up to deliver 24/7 news, according to a new report.
The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that the microblogging service and Bloomberg are "joining forces… to create a service that will stream news produced solely for Twitter 24 hours a day, seven days a week." The stream will focus "on the most important news for an intelligent audience around the globe and it's going to be broader in focus than our existing network," Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith told the Journal.
The channel is expected to launch this fall. The news comes after Twitter COO and CFO Anthony Noto last week told BuzzFeed the company plans to air live video 24/7 inside its apps and desktop site.
"We will definitely have 24/7 [video] content on Twitter," Noto said, according to BuzzFeed. "Our goal is to be a dependable place so that when you want to see what's happening, you think of going to Twitter."
Twitter has already experimented with live streams, from last year's political conventions to pro sports. Last month, however, it lost the streaming rights for the NFL's Thursday Night Football games to Amazon. When the games streamed on Twitter last season, anyone who logged in could watch them for free — and a lot of people did. Going forward, the live streams will be limited to subscribers of Amazon's $99 yearly or $10.99 monthly Prime service.
"Since last year, we have collaborated on over 40 live stream partnerships and we will continue to bring the best live content to our customers around the world," a Twitter spokesman said last month. "In Q1 2017, we aired more than 800 hours of live-stream content from over 400 events across sports, news, politics and entertainment. The NFL was a great partner to launch our strategy and we will continue to work with them to bring great content to our passionate sports fans."