Twitter has struck a far-reaching deal with MLBAM in which it will stream live, weekly out-of-market games for both MLB and the NHL. There also will be a new, exclusive nightly multisport highlights show in collaboration with 120 Sports, of which MLBAM is a founding partner. The deal extends a recent run of sports deals for Twitter that also includes pacts with Campus Insiders, the NBA and with the NFL to live stream “Thursday Night Football.” The nightly highlights show, to be called “The Rally,” will be the first of its kind to be shown on Twitter, and will incorporate Twitter-based data to determine top trending topics. The MLBAM partnership arrives after a meeting in the early spring between MLB President of Business & Media Bob Bowman and Twitter COO Adam Bain and CFO Anthony Noto, and more recently was shepherded to completion in part by MLBAM Exec VP/Business Kenny Gersh. The live weekly games on Twitter do not yet have a specific start date, but are expected to become available for baseball prior to the end of the ’16 season and during the ’16-17 season for hockey. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal involves revenue sharing of advertising sold around the live games and “The Rally.” The games and the highlight show will be free and accessible to both logged-in and logged-out users. The revenue sharing will kick in after Twitter meets an initial, undisclosed guarantee in ad sales. The games shown on Twitter will also carry exclusive third-party OTT rights, though they will remain available on MLB.tv and NHL.tv, and in both sports will still be subject to all standard market blackout provisions.
DARK MATTER: The MLBAM deal represents the first time Twitter will enforce local-level geographic blackouts on any significant scale. The company has previously engaged in some blacking out of content on an international basis. The NHL games and “The Rally” will only be available in the U.S. Meanwhile, “The Rally” represents a substantial bump in profile and distribution for 120 Sports, which debuted in June ’14. For the NHL, the Twitter deal represents the latest in a series of deals MLBAM has developed on behalf of hockey since it acquired the sport’s digital media rights nearly a year ago, adding to prior agreements struck with companies such as Sportradar, TuneIn and Yahoo.
