Twitter Faces Competition for NFL Rights

Social media platform Twitter will face strong competition if it is to renew its live streaming rights deal for NFL american football.

Facebook, Youtube and Amazon have all submitted  rival bids to secure digital streaming rights for the 2017 season, with all four competing companies having previously bid for the 2016 rights.

Twitter won 2016 rights with a $10m bid, but the financial implications of this year’s deal may be higher.

The NFL selected Twitter as its exclusive partner to deliver a live over-the-top digital stream of Thursday Night Football games to a global audience across all devices and for free during the course of the 2016 regular season.

Twitter streamed the 10 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by the NBC and CBS networks, which were also simulcast on cable television broadcaster NFL Network, securing the league’s targeted ‘tri-cast’ distribution model of broadcast, cable and digital platforms.