NEW YORK — Twitter is exploring the feasibility of implementing micropayments that could allow sports fans to watch a few minutes of a tied basketball game or see the last few innings of a pitcher closing in on a no-hitter.
“It’s something that we talk about a lot because Twitter really is the ideal platform for something like that,” Twitter’s global head of sports partnerships, Laura Froelich, told SportTechie. “I can’t necessarily say that it’s something that you’ll see soon, but it’s certainly something that makes all the sense in the world for Twitter.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver floated the concept — essentially an iTunes for sporting events — while appearing on a panel at last January’s CES. Already the league has made single games available, typically for $6.99 each, in addition to its $199.99 traditional season-long NBA League Pass.
As Silver said at the time, “I think you’re going to get to the point where somebody wants to watch the last five minutes of the game, and they go click, they’ll pay a set price for five minutes as opposed to what they would pay for two hours of the game.”
Such a principle certainly could be applicable to most sports, even if the NBA is the only major North American league currently to offer even single-game purchase options. The out-of-market packages offered by MLB, NHL and the MLS all include season-long single-team packages and league-wide monthly options as their smallest increments. The NFL Sunday Ticket is only a league-wide, season-long proposition.
Any sort of micropayments option would likely require clearance in the various leagues’ negotiated contracts with their broadcast partners.
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There have been prior micropayment experiments on the platform through such apps as Twitpay, Flattr and Fancy, although none lasted. They are, however, not uncommon in some sports video games such as the FIFA series by Electronic Arts. Still, there are ardent backers: ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell, for instance, has been touting the potential of micropayments in sports for years.
Future of Twitter: Someone tweets about final 2 minutes of NBA game. Click on link. Pay 50 cents to watch end of game on phone/tablet
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) February 11, 2014
Can't wait until NBA goes to micro payments.
Can't imagine how many people would have bought the last two minutes of Knicks-Lakers tonight for 99 cents.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 13, 2017