You scream, I scream ‘Live Stream’

| MEERA MANU

Published : Aug 27, 2016, 11:03 pm IST

Updated : Aug 27, 2016, 11:03 pm IST

The live-streaming big players’ list gets appended with a new, yet familiar name.

The live-streaming big players’ list gets appended with a new, yet familiar name. Going by Twitter chief financial officer Anthony Noto’s tweet, there’s more to come from the microblogger, most likely a dedicated live-streaming space. “Stay tuned. Still testing. We have a plan for a permanent location for events that are live,” Anthony wrote on his account. With Twitter becoming buddies with the popular sports leagues, it is speculated to jump on the bandwagon with the start of National Football League (NFL) in September, predicts Venturebeat.

Meanwhile, the PGA Tour starting this week has announced its playoffs going live on Twitter and Facebook from The Barclays. Twitter is supposed to have an edge over the other, with certain events reserved exclusively for it and North American region. Other than PGA Tour and NFL, the National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) can also be expected on the social media platform.

“Having that live programming every night when sports are playing — with no paywall, no logging in and directly from the source — that’s key to us,” New York Times quotes Anthony.

Previous month, Twitter, in a live-streaming spree was seen inking deals with CBS and Bloomberg Media. The CBS tie-up was for its coverage of political conventions and for the other, it was to stream a select range of programmes of Bloomberg.

Referring to Noto, live-streaming is touted to be one among the many strategies Twitter is playing off for an overall makeover. So, live videos on Twitter might be a possibility. Together with Periscope, the live video streaming app acquired back in 2015, it strengthens the potential of Twitter in numerous aspects. That it could reach out to a wider audience an assured return, going live could be an income generator from selling video ads. The more it enables attracting viewers, the higher are the chances of getting video ads and the accompanying revenue. Twitter’s active monthly users alone are said to number 313 million.