Twitter is "looking to grow its partnership with the NFL after what it described as a win-win deal this past season," according to Taylor Soper of GEEKWIRE. The company as part of its earnings report on Thursday "highlighted its live streaming NFL product that debuted this past season, calling it 'the major highlight of the fourth quarter'" with an "average audience of 3.5 million unique viewers per game." Soper noted that was a "bit higher than previously reported due to a new video view standard Twitter is now using." Twitter CFO Anthony Noto said the live games "exceeded our expectations on both revenue and profitability for both us and our partners." Noto also "touted Twitter’s younger audience [55% under the age of 25] and international reach [25% outside the U.S.] as reasons for why the NFL picked the platform." Noto: "We will look to partner with (the NFL) in a bigger way." Soper noted another deal "would make sense for Twitter, given its new focus on buying rights to live content and streaming the action on its platform." Twitter has "similar deals with leagues like the NBA and MLB." An NFL spokesperson last month said that the league is "still evaluating its options" (GEEKWIRE.com, 2/9).
CAN TWITTER CAPITALIZE? Wells Fargo analyst Peter Stabler said that his look at the NFL streaming data "suggests Twitter didn't 'appreciably build an audience' during football season" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/10). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Mike Shields wrote under the header, "Neither Trump Nor The NFL Delivered Big Rewards For Twitter." It is "troubling" that Twitter’s deal to stream 10 "TNF" games "doesn’t seem to have moved the user needle much" (WSJ.com, 2/9). In N.Y., Mike Isaac writes for "all of its influence, Twitter cannot seem to capitalize on its wide reach." The company reported "disappointing earnings on Thursday," with sales totaling $717M in Q4, up only about 1% compared with a year ago. That "fell far short" of analysts’ expectations of $740M. Isaac: "Part of Twitter’s problems are Facebook and Google, the 900-pound gorillas that dominate digital advertising" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/10).
