Twitter announced expanded partnerships with a slew of sports leagues and media companies such as the NFL, MLS, ESPN, The Players’ Tribune, Bleacher Report, and Blizzard Entertainment. Twitter shared the news at NewFronts, the digital media industry’s annual pitch to advertisers.
In extending its agreement with the NFL, Twitter will produce new live programming tied to major events on the football calendar. The league will continue supplying highlights, news, and analysis.
MLS said its renewal with Twitter would add two additional seasons, carrying the agreement through 2022. The two began the collaboration in March 2018 on what was then a three-year deal that included 25 live matches with English-language feeds of games on Univision. MLS’s English and Spanish Twitter handles, @MLS and @FutbolMLS, will show clips of every league goal, and the partners will seek to innovate in the same way they did with last summer’s fan-controlled camera.
Among the new general sports programming to be carried on Twitter are ESPN Onsite and Don’t @ Me. ESPN Onsite will feature additional live coverage, as well as clips and fan engagement activities, when the sports network is broadcasting on location at major events. Don’t @ Me will be produced by The Players’ Tribune and will pit two athletes in greatest-of-all-time debates, with fans chiming in topic suggestions via tweets. (Previously, TPT streamed #Verified on Twitter.) Twitter is also bringing back Bleacher Report’s House of Highlights Show for a second season.
In addition to the MLS broadcasts, Univision’s Twitter account will supply highlights of Liga MX and UEFA Champions League soccer. Blizzard Entertainment, which produces the BlizzCon gaming convention to be held on Nov. 1-2 this year, will produce exclusive live content for Twitter.