Twitter is planning to stream live video round the clock. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Twitter COO and CFO Anthony Noto stated that the company planned to broadcast video content covering news, sports, and entertainment 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Noto did not state when Twitter would commence broadcasting around the clock, specifying that it would take some time for the company to ramp up to that point, but he said that they were currently working on a array of programs to fill up this new always-on Twitter TV. “We are working on many, many things,” he told BuzzFeed News. “There’s a lot in the pipeline.”
The showcase is scheduled at next week’s NewFronts. Twitter is making its first appearance at the event and is expected to introduce some of its new shows. Noto states the end result may be closer to the kind of dip-in, dip-out programming you get on rolling news networks or always-on sports channels.
Not many details about Twitter’s specific plans were disclosed, but this comes right after Twitter lost a bidding war with Amazon for streaming rights for Thursday Night NFL games. The new deal worth $50 million will see the games move from Twitter to Amazon’s platform.
Big deals like the rights to broadcast the US presidential debates, and e-sports tournaments run by ESL and Dreamhack should have gone some way to convince people that Twitter has the infrastructure to support millions of viewers at the same time, as well as an in-built userbase that may be tempted to watch TV shows in the background while on Twitter.
