Twitter and Major League Baseball renewed their partnership to stream weekly games on the social media platform, moving those broadcasts from Friday nights to weekday afternoons.
The 2018 streaming schedule begins Thursday, April 5 as the Oakland Athletics host the Texas Rangers and will be followed Tuesday, April 10 with Tampa Bay Rays at Chicago White Sox. The games will be available through the official @MLB account as well as through live.twitter.com/MLB.
Twitter rolled out hashtag-triggering emojis for all 30 clubs on Opening Day and in the playoffs last year, but they have been extended throughout the whole season. The weekly roundup show, The Dugout, is expected to return a little later in the season, although there has been no official announcement.
Hashtag emojis are here for #OpeningDay.
And they’re staying ALL. SEASON. LONG. pic.twitter.com/xIapkDyjx1
— MLB (@MLB) March 26, 2018
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SportTechie Takeaway:
This partnership is similar to the one Facebook recently struck with MLB — also to stream weekday afternoon games — but the crucial distinction is that Twitter’s games will not be exclusive to the social media platform. Those matinees tend to draw weaker television audiences but naturally lend themselves to social streaming where office-bound employees might be inclined to put a game on in the background as they work.
Twitter continues to prioritize live sports content as a complement to its social chatter, and leagues like the younger demographic it attracts. About 55 percent of those who tuned into Twitter’s NFL games two years ago were under the age of 25.