Twitter lands deal to stream Thursday night football

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Great news for all you football fans on social media: Twitter just landed the rights to stream 10 of the NFL’s Thursday night football games this fall!

Read more: 10 ways to watch awesome TV without a cable bill

Twitter streaming NFL games live this fall

According to the New York Times, Twitter is paying about $10 million for the ability to stream NFL Thursday night football. Though there were higher offers, the NFL believes Twitter was a better fit for its fans because of the ability to create ongoing conversation around the game. 

Games will still be broadcasted on TV and cable, but Twitter will be able to show in-game highlights and pregame broadcasts from players and teams on its Periscope video app. 

How it will work

Video of the games will stream on Twitter’s website and app, according to Twitter, but what isn’t known yet is if the video feed will automatically appear at the top of a user’s Twitter feed during game time. Additionally, games could potentially be viewed by people who aren’t even Twitter users, through streams embedded on other websites and apps. 

This move by the NFL potentially broadens its reach to the over 320 million active users on Twitter that log in at least once a month. However, it is uncharted waters for Twitter; in the past, Twitter has shown short clips, not entire segments of programming. It will be interesting to see how Twitter users respond to programming that is longer in length. 

But the good news for you is this: You’ll be able to watch Thursday night football 100% online — without cable! This is just another move in the market away from paid TV, creating new ways of watching the entertainment you enjoy. 

Read more: Time Warner Cable warns 320,000 customers their data may have been stolen

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