In what could be a preview of what watching sports online might be like in the future, the NBA today announced a live streaming deal with Twitch. Starting Friday, the NBA will live stream up to six games per week from its G League — the NBA’s official minor league — on Twitch, the streaming giant owned by Amazon that is known for streaming video game action but is now expanding to other verticals. The G League streams will mimic many features that Twitch’s 15 million daily active users already engage with while watching other people play video games. There… Read More
Amazon is poised to become a live sports powerhouse as soon as next year, a new report predicts, as more tech companies are seeking out streaming rights for top leagues in the U.S. and abroad. The report from Juniper Research covers 10 tech trends for 2018. The presence of Amazon, and to a lesser extent Facebook, as top contenders for major sports packages is the firm’s number one trend to watch for next year. Amazon’s biggest foray into live sports so far came when it dropped a reported $50 million to stream 11 NFL Thursday Night Football games. Amazon beat… Read More
Twitter lost out on a chance to broadcast live NFL games for the second season in a row, but the social media company will still host exclusive pro football content this year. Twitter and the NFL on Thursday announced a new multi-year deal for several programs to be aired through Periscope and Twitter. Twitter will be home to a 30-minute daily studio show with top analysts from the NFL Network, as well as a pre-game show before primetime Thursday, Sunday and Monday games that will include player warm-ups and sideline interviews. “This new multi-year collaboration will bring compelling live studio… Read More
Twitter today announced a two-year live streaming partnership with the National Lacrosse League (NLL), expanding its growing catalog of live streaming sports content. The company will stream one NLL game per week for the remainder of the 2017 season and the entire 2018 season, as well as part of the playoffs (division finals and best-of-three Champion’s Cup) each year. Twitter will also stream league-wide highlights on its platform and sell sponsorships for the stream, but it’s not clear how ad revenue will be split. The content is available to logged-in and logged-out users. “This is a historic broadcast relationship that will… Read More
Twitter is teaming up with some of the world’s top eSports companies as it continues to ink more and more live-streaming deals. The company today announced a global partnership with three leading eSports event operators — ESL, DreamHack, and Intel Extreme Masters — to livestream more than 15 eSports events and 1,500 hours of programming, including a weekly 30-minute show exclusive to Twitter. The partnership will kick off Saturday with Intel’s Katowice tournament streamed on Twitter for free. “Esports is growing at a rapid pace and we see this collaboration as a way to tap into the engaged audience of gamers that are… Read More
