Skip to main content

Twitter, NFL expand social partnership for new football season

twitter nfl expand social partnership for new football season field
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Broadening the terms of previous deals struck during 2013 and 2014, the National Football League and social media giant Twitter have entered into a two-year partnership that will make more multimedia content available to roughly 300 million Twitter users. Details of the deal indicate that the NFL will triple the volume of photographs and in-game highlights that are distributed on the social network.

That covers highlights from the start of the NFL pre-season all the way through Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016. Besides video of the most exciting plays during games, NFL’s social media team will be publishing infographics as well as overall game recaps specifically developed for the Twitter audience. Of course, the NFL also has agreements with social networks like Facebook and online video distribution networks like YouTube, thus it’s likely similar content will be available outside of Twitter.

While Twitter representatives declined to comment, it’s highly likely that NFL content will be integrated heavily into Twitter’s “Project Lightning.” Demoed to Buzzfeed during June 2015, the new format will package content from ongoing real-time events into a new design for users. This content will be hand-selected by a team of editors within Twitter and attempt to provide more comprehensive coverage of events like award shows, sporting events and important stories trending in the news.

The NFL didn’t indicate if video platforms like Vine or Periscope will be utilized to publish content on Twitter. Hypothetically, Vine would be ideal for capturing plays that are likely to be retweeted heavily during a game and Periscope could offer a unique live-streaming angle from the sidelines while a game is ongoing. Of course, the use of Periscope would likely be limited to members of the NFL’s social media team. The NFL started cracking down on teams using Periscope to live-stream practices or other team related events earlier this year.

Editors' Recommendations

Mike Flacy
By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…
Edited tweets may be coming to your Twitter timeline soon
Twitter app on the OnePlus 10T.

You may soon see edited tweets on your timeline because Twitter has begun testing its Edit Tweet feature.

On Thursday, Twitter offered up an update on its long-awaited tweet editing feature via a tweet and a blog post. Twitter published a blog post that details the nature of the test and what the current version of the Edit Tweet feature entails.

Read more
Twitter Circle launches globally, but lots of us can’t add anyone yet
Twitter logo in white stacked on top of a blue stylized background with the Twitter logo repeating in shades of blue.

The bird app's coveted Circle feature finally launched globally this week, but many users still can't use it.

On Tuesday, Twitter announced via a tweet that Twitter Circle (a feature that lets you tweet to just a chosen few), was finally available for all users on Android, iOS, and the web. But then, many of us quickly opened up our apps and checked online to try it out only to be met with a shiny new feature that apparently isn't working properly right now.

Read more
Twitter takes one more step toward giving us an edit button
The Twitter app on the Sony XPeria 5 II.

Twitter is apparently working on a new tweet embed feature that indicates whether or not an embedded tweet has been edited, taking us one step closer to actually getting a proper edit button.

On Monday, Jane Manchun Wong tweeted a screenshot of the in-progress tweet embed feature. The screenshot features two versions of the same embedded tweet.

Read more