Twitter today is "livecasting its first live sports event, Wimbledon, using an ESPN feed," according to Steve Dent of ENGADGET. Twitter emphasized that it is using the event "as a trial run." Dent writes the quality of the stream "looks good, as several Twitter users have observed." For now, though, it is "just a basic feed accompanied by the #Wimbledon Twitter stream." While Twitter "intends to sell ads for its NFL livestreams, there are no signs of them for Wimbledon, either in the video or feed beside it." The stream "doesn't appear to be geolocked for now, either." Twitter "hasn't said how much" it is paying Wimbledon or ESPN to stream the feed (ENGADGET.com, 7/6).
TWITTER REACTION: Lowercase Capital Founder Chris Sacca tweeted, "Cheers to Twitter for launching truly live HD video alongside relevant Tweets. Serious progress." Laundry Service Founder & CEO Jason Stein: "Live HD video on Twitter has arrived and it's beautiful. May the live conversation flourish." The MMQB's Albert Breer: "Pretty clean look ... And a good idea of how TNF on Twitter will work. Live video = The next frontier for the web." Investment Advisor Co-Founder & CEO Ross Gerber: "I like this from #Twitter. I don't know if people will watch sports for long on a phone. We shall see." ESPN's Darren Rovell: "One immediate change to Twitter live viewing experience: Timeline on side has to be same timeline people use, not event hashtag organized." Bloomberg's Shira Ovide: "The statement to @Recode was all but screaming this is a work in progress." Greylock Partners' Josh Elman: "The best part of seeing Twitter live sports is I can remember this experience first discussed as 'Events' back in 2010."
