National Football League

Twitter, NFL announce multi-year partnership to include live pre-game coverage

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:38 a.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, Mark J. Burns/Sports Illustrated

Read about the latest sports tech news, innovations, ideas and products that impact players, fans and the sports industry overall at SportTechie.com.

In spite of losing its Thursday Night Football live streaming deal to Amazon for 2017, Twitter will again be partnering with the NFL around a new multi-year deal to include live pre-game coverage. More details are becoming clear following Twitter’s series of sports live streaming announcements at NewFronts last week.

As part of the live pre-game coverage, the league will use both Periscope and Twitter to offer fans content such as sideline interviews and player warm-ups during primetime windows and other key match-ups throughout the season.

Subscribe to the
SportTechie NewsletterSubscribe

The NFL will also produce a live 30-minute digital show with NFL Network talent, broadcasting on Twitter five days a week. The programming will cover game highlights, league storylines, breaking news, fantasy insights, pre-game updates and other news for NFL fans.

“Twitter continues to be an important partner in accessing millions of highly engaged fans on digital media,” Brian Rolapp, Chief Media and Business Officer for the NFL said in a statement. “We have every expectation that the new daily live show, produced by NFL Network and featuring some of our top analysts, will quickly become some of the most popular programming on Twitter.”

Added Twitter Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto in a statement: “We are very excited to offer football fans around the world even more content on Twitter from the NFL. This new multiyear collaboration will bring compelling live studio programs that discuss what’s happening in the NFL, unique behind the scenes live broadcasts before games, and the best NFL highlights to Twitter, alongside the real-time NFL conversation.”

The NFL and Twitter also announced that they extended their Amplify program relationship, which goes back to 2013. They will continue to offer brands an opportunity to advertise around league content created for the social network.