NATIONAL FOOTBALL
LEAGUE AND TWITTER ANNOUNCE STREAMING PARTNERSHIP FOR THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
Twitter to stream 10 Thursday Night Football games globally
The National Football League (NFL) announced today that it
has selected Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) as its exclusive partner to deliver a live OTT
digital stream of Thursday Night Football
to a global audience across devices and for free during the course of the 2016
NFL Regular Season. Twitter will stream the 10 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by NBC and CBS, which will
also be simulcast on NFL Network, securing the league’s “Tri-Cast” distribution
model of broadcast (NBC/CBS), cable (NFL Network), and digital (Twitter).
Partners since 2013 through the Twitter Amplify program, the
NFL and Twitter will provide free, live streaming video of Thursday Night Football without authentication to the over 800
Million registered and non-registered users worldwide on the Twitter platform
on mobile phones, tablets, PCs and connected TVs.
In addition to live streaming video of NFL action, the
partnership includes in-game highlights from TNF as well as pre-game Periscope
broadcasts from players and teams, giving fans an immersive experience before,
during and after games.
With this partnership, the NFL has again extended its
digital presence, making the most valuable content in sports and entertainment
available across multiple digital platforms free for all users.
“Twitter is where live events unfold and
is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans
around the world live NFL football”, said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “There is a
massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our
games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast
and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an
unprecedented number of platforms this season. This agreement also provides
additional reach for those brands advertising with our broadcast partners.”
"This is about transforming the fan experience with
football. People watch NFL games with Twitter today," said Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO. "Now
they'll be able to watch right on Twitter Thursday nights."
Last season, the NFL broke new digital ground in a
partnership with Yahoo! to deliver a free, global live stream of a regular
season NFL game, the first time users could access the NFL’s premium content
worldwide, without authentication.
When the Buffalo Bills faced off against the Jacksonville
Jaguars from London’s Wembley Stadium on October 25, 2015, football fans
streamed over 480 million minutes of the game, with 33% of streams coming in
internationally, across 185 countries worldwide.
About Thursday Night Football
Thursday Night
Football started in 2006 with an eight game schedule exclusively on NFL
Network. By 2012, Thursday Night Football
had grown to a 13-game schedule exclusively on NFL Network, where it remained
through the 2013 season. For both the 2014 and 2015 seasons, CBS partnered with
NFL Network to present an expanded 16-game Thursday
Night Football schedule.
In February of 2016, the
NFL announced that both CBS and NBC will broadcast five Thursday Night Football games, growing
the package to 10 broadcast games in 2016 and 2017 from eight in 2014 and 2015.
All Thursday Night Football broadcast
games will continue to be simulcast on NFL Network. NFL Network will also
exclusively televise an eight-game schedule of regular season games comprised
of Thursday Night Football,
late-season games on Saturday, and additional games to be determined.
Both CBS and NBC will produce Thursday Night Football with their lead broadcasters and production
teams with CBS and NFL Network televising the first half of the TNF schedule
and NBC and NFL Network televising the second half.
For the 16 games of the 2015 schedule, Thursday Night Football on CBS and NFL Network (and over-the-air
stations) averaged a 7.9 HH rating and 13.0M viewers, up +59% and +61%
respectively from 2013 when the games were solely on NFL Network. The 2015
season was the most-watched and highest-rated Thursday Night Football season ever.
Popularity of NFL
Games
NFL content has never been more popular across the media
landscape. According to the Nielsen Company, 199 million people tuned into the
2015 NFL regular season representing 78 percent of all television homes and 67
percent of potential viewers in the U.S. NFL games accounted for the top 25 and
46 of the 50 most-watched TV shows among all programming in 2015.
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PRESS
CONTACTS
NFL:
Alex Riethmiller TWITTER: Jim Prosser
alex.riethmiller@nfl.com jprosser@twitter.com
310.840.4681 415.857.5461