Close on the heels of live streaming NFL matches, Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) has launched an app for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) TV, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Fire TV and Microsoft’s Xbox One.
The app will be available across the globe through App store for Apple TV users. However, for Fire TV users, the app is available only in the U.S and the U.K. The Twitter App for Xbox One will be available only in Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the U.S, and the U.K.
The new app will be available to all users of these devices, thereby eliminating the need of a Twitter account or a pay TV subscription. Through the app, users will get access to top tweets as well as all of the micro blogging site’s video content including NFL, NBA, MLB and also top Vine and Periscope content.
Twitter CFO Anthony Noto said, “These devices will bring Twitter's live streaming video experience to life on the TV screen. Twitter has always been a great complement to TV, and now fans can enjoy even more premium video with live Tweets — and the best content on Twitter — right from their TVs. We're excited to introduce this new experience to people, without requiring a paywall or having to log in to Twitter."
Twitter is now going focusing on “live” as it battles decelerating revenue and user growth. It is exploring options beyond live news and the series of diverse live streaming deals are a reflection of that. It brought on board Bloomberg. Twitter will be live streaming market coverage as well as air several Bloomberg shows. It has also inked deal with live news network, Cheddar to live stream their opening and closing market coverage. Twitter live streamed special Wimbledon coverage, which is important as the company gears up to live stream 10 NFL matches. It won the rights to stream NFL for $10 million in April.
The first NFL match today is an acid test for Twitter. Twitter‘s brand advertising business is struggling. With NFL, the company hopes to bring in more users and at the same time help marketers to reach a younger demographic, mostly millennials, through its Amplify program. The company has collaborated with the likes of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Nestlé, Sony Pictures, and Verizon for ad packages for NFL games that will be streamed this month. As per media reports, Twitter has apparently sold ad packages for 10 matches in a range of $1 million to $10 million.
Apart from NFL, it has collaborated with NBA and Major League Soccer, NHL. It has also signed a deal with 120 sports and Pac-12 networks to stream collegiate sports events.
At present Twitter carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the tech space include Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) , NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES) and NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) . All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank#1 (Strong Buy).You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Interested in IPOs? Check out the special edition of Zacks Friday Finish Line below, where Editor Maddy Johnson and Content Writer Ryan McQueeney interview Kathleen Smith of Renaissance Capital about the IPO market in 2016 (see part two here).
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