Twitter on Thursday kicked off its Q3 earnings call with CFO Anthony Noto talking up the "early response to its live Thursday Night Football video streams," but since only two of the games took place in Q3, the financial contribution was “small relative to total revenue," according to David Lieberman of DEADLINE.com. Twitter "reached more than 2 million people over the first two games it offered, and 3 million for the last three." Noto said, "We’re at the beginning of the beginning of our product enhancements" (DEADLINE.com, 10/27). Noto added that "up to 15% of those who viewed its NFL streams do not have active Twitter accounts" (FOXBUSINESS.com, 10/27). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Deepa Seetharaman notes in its first seven games Thursday night games, Twitter has "attracted an average audience of more than 200,000 viewers." Morgan Stanley analysts project Twitter's NFL deal will generate just $11M in "incremental ad revenue" in Q4 (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/28).
TOUGH TIMES: Twitter on Thursday said that it "planned to cut 350 jobs," or roughly 9% of its global work force, as it "tries to revamp the company and become profitable." In N.Y., Mike Isaac notes Twitter's Q3 results "showed budding signs of progress, as user growth and revenue rose more than Wall Street had anticipated." However, Twitter is "beginning to pare back businesses it no longer views as central." The company said that it would "discontinue the mobile app Vine, the application for sharing six-second videos that Twitter acquired and introduced" in '13. While Vine "gained early traction with young users, the app did not reliably make money" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/28). Twitter's cuts are "largely in its sales, partnerships and marketing organization" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/28).
