Twitter Inc., making a strategic push into online programming, won a deal to show Thursday night National Football League games online, a person familiar with the matter said.
The social-media company was said to be bidding against a slate of heavyweights including Verizon Communications Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Facebook Inc. dropped out of the bidding last week, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions who asked not to be named because the talks were private.
A tweet from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s account on Tuesday morning appeared to confirm the move.
“This fall Thursday Night Football will be streamed live @twitter so fans will see more of this,” , which linked to the video: “The 2015 NFL Season in Six Minutes.”
Goodell’s last tweet was sent in September 2014.
The deal gives Twitter a key piece of content to attract mainstream users in its quest to make its service a go-to place to react to and discuss live events. The NFL, aware that a growing number of households are comfortable streaming video over the Internet, is using the digital rights for Thursday night games to reach so-called cord-cutters, as former cable-TV subscribers are known.
Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) shares gained 2.6 percent to $17.53 in early trading.
Denver Post Staff Writer Alicia Wallace contributed to this report.
