Twitter and the NFL are not strangers to one another, with the two having worked together since 2013 on Twitter Amplify, which made video more accessible on Twitter timelines. But as of today, they are taking their relationship to the next level.
The NFL and Twitter announced that they will enter into a two-year partnership, seeing the NFL provide Twitter with more content and most importantly a greater video presence on the social networking site. The financial details of this deal were not disclosed.
In the press release, the two organizations stated that the NFL video highlights will be available on Twitter from preseason up through the Super Bowl, in addition to “breaking news and analysis, best plays, custom game recaps, fun infographics, behind-the-scenes content, and relevant archival video.”
The release also includes the more vague language of the NFL and Twitter working together on “new discovery features.”
Some are projecting that this could mean that the NFL will be a testing ground for Twitter’s not-yet-released “Project Lightning.” Project Lightning will be focused around creating an immersive event experience. It is a completely new look and way to tweet—and it is much better explained in this article.
This partnership comes at a crucial spot in Twitter’s financial timeline, seeing as its growth is slowing and its shares have gone down this past year. Twitter has never had a multi-year deal with a big media company, so this provides them with some stability.
Twitter has heavily invested their energy recently into creating unique experiences in the sports world. They started with creating a custom timeline for the NBA Finals, and did similar with last weekend’s Barclay’s Premier League kickoff.