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Twitter, Noto focus on delivering ‘high-quality experience’ with debut of NFL live-streaming

The live-streaming of “Thursday Night Football” on Twitter, which begins this week, is the latest in an extended series of sports deals for the embattled social media platform.

In the last six months, San Francisco-based Twitter has signed the NFL agreement to live-stream coverage from NBC and CBS this fall, doubled the amount of content it receives from the NBA through a renewal with that league, and struck a deal with MLB Advanced Media that paves the way for weekly live-streamed, out-of-market MLB and NHL games on Twitter. The MLBAM deal created an exclusive nightly highlights show produced by 120 Sports, “The Rally,” that made its debut last week.

Twitter has also ventured into college sports through a digital media rights partnership with Campus Insiders.
Amid all that activity, Twitter still receives plenty of skepticism on Wall Street with user growth largely stalled at 313 million average monthly active users. Anthony Noto, Twitter chief financial officer and formerly the NFL’s CFO, discussed the recent sports deals, the debut of NFL live-streaming, and what it means for the company.

“We want Thursday to be the most social night of football out there.”
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
What has precipitated the recent run of sports deals?

NOTO: This is part of a broader strategy. We are best at live, fostering live connections. So this is a natural extension for us. People have always been connected with us during a live game, so it’s quite natural to now bring those events directly onto the platform in a single, integrated experience. And sports is one of three key verticals we are focusing on in this area [the others are news/politics and entertainment].

What are league and other sports industry partners asking for from you?

NOTO: Our demographic is very attractive to our partners. We have a very young, mobile focused, and globally diverse audience. These are things that can be very additive and complementary to their existing distribution strategies. And we have an audience that we know a lot about what their interests are, their overall interest graphs, based on who they follow.

What does the NFL deal for the Thursday night streaming represent for the company?

NOTO: We have already done a number of other live events, both in and out of sports, so we’ve been working up to this. We’ve done our first college event, the PGA Tour, the Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention, award show red carpet galas, and so on. These are all lessons learned. So what we’re looking to do now with football is deliver a high-quality experience with low-latency video that is valuable for fans. It’s a big moment for us.

How will you define success from this venture?

NOTO: Over the length of the season, not just the first game, we want to deliver a truly high-quality experience for our users that is incremental to our partners’ existing distribution strategies, and in turn, is able to be monetized.

What kind of metrics will you be focusing on?

NOTO: Again, the first step is to ensure a high-quality experience. We want Thursday to be the most social night of football out there. That’s the first goal. But 100 percent of what we’re doing in this venture is in full collaboration with our partners at the NFL, NBC and CBS, and that includes measurement. And when we have more specific measurements, we will share those.

What will the NFL games specifically, and the sports events more broadly, do to expand Twitter’s audience?

NOTO: This is all a natural evolution of connections already happening on the platform. So we certainly believe this will both drive further engagement among our existing users and help bring in new users. Live sports definitely help communicate what Twitter is all about. We know that our audience growth has been impacted by issues in understanding the full value of Twitter. But providing a frictionless experience for key events like this, we think that goes a long way toward communicating that full value.

How do you believe this deal will change the notion of Twitter on Wall Street?

NOTO: Live is one of five key priorities we’re executing on. The NFL is a key part of that initiative. We intend to show progress on that front and deliver on the plan and on shareholder expectations.

— Eric Fisher

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