Twitter will live stream weekly out-of-market games from Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League, the social networking service announced this morning. 120 Sports, the Chicago-based digital sports network, will also produce a multi-sports highlights show, “The Rally,” that will be be streamed live on Twitter.
Twitter’s more than 65 million active monthly users in the U.S. will be able to stream one out-of-market MLB and one out-of-market NHL game per week. MLB games also will be available worldwide, save select territories.
“Twitter is the fastest way to see what’s unfolding in MLB and the NHL,” said Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer in a statement. “MLBAM has pioneered streaming live digital video and we could not be more excited to partner with them on live games as well as ‘The Rally’, giving our audience the live sports events they are already talking about on screen on Twitter.”
“The Rally,” a nightly highlights program, will be exclusively available to Twitter users in the U.S. It will use Twitter data to determine trending topics, including the Summer Olympics that kicks off next Friday.
Twitter’s announcement comes less than a week after it scored a live-streaming deal with the National Basketball Association. Earlier this year, it announced a streaming deal with the Pac-12 Network.
The San Francisco-based networking site’s recent deals highlight its effort to appeal to new users by offering exclusive content. Twitter live-streamed Wimbledon, as well as the Republican National Convention last week — thanks to deal with CBS allowing Twitter to stream the network’s coverage. Twitter will also stream this week’s Democratic National Convention.
A schedule for the MLB and NHL will be announced at a later date.
Matthew Gutierrez: mgutierrez@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3852. Twitter: @Matthewgut21.
First Published: July 25, 2016, 1:28 p.m.
