Twitter strikes video content deal with NFL

Social networking website Twitter has agreed a deal with American football league the NFL to make game clips and other content available through its Amplify platform, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper said that the agreement marked the biggest sports-related commitment to date by Twitter.

The NFL will have a team dedicated to producing programming for Twitter users, including in-game highlights from Thursday night games on league-owned pay-television broadcaster the NFL Network, and clips from games on other networks such as CBS and Fox once they have been shown.

The NFL will also provide other content such as news, analysis and fantasy football advice. However, it is understood that the league will retain clip rights to Monday Night Football and will tweet highlights of the games once they have been broadcast.

Twitter's Amplify revenue-generating programme allows television content owners to distribute programming in users’ Twitter feeds, with short adverts embedded. The companies share the ad revenue. The newspaper said that the NFL and Twitter had already pre-sold advertising inventory, securing revenue in the “low eight-figure range.”

Adam Bain, Twitter’s president of global revenue, said putting the NFL’s “highly coveted content” on Twitter “will not only offer our users a unique programming schedule which will deepen their engagement with our platform but will also provide our sponsors with a value proposition that few other partners can bring to the table.”