Twitter today announced a two-year live streaming partnership with the National Lacrosse League (NLL), expanding its growing catalog of live streaming sports content.
The company will stream one NLL game per week for the remainder of the 2017 season and the entire 2018 season, as well as part of the playoffs (division finals and best-of-three Champion’s Cup) each year. Twitter will also stream league-wide highlights on its platform and sell sponsorships for the stream, but it’s not clear how ad revenue will be split. The content is available to logged-in and logged-out users.
“This is a historic broadcast relationship that will unlock the great game and we are honored to partner with Twitter,” NLL Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz said in a statement. “The future of the sports viewing experience is digital, and this partnership will not only elevate the fan experience by making the game more accessible to audiences, but enable simultaneous real-time conversations and connections with other fans on the same platform.”
Last month, Twitter streamed its first NCAA men’s lacrosse game and drew more than 680,000 unique viewers.
Though the NLL isn’t one of the nation’s top leagues, it’s yet another sports-related live streaming deal for Twitter, which is focusing heavily on live video content as it tries to add more monthly active users (it added just two million over the last quarter) and earn more revenue (it lost $400 million in 2016).
The company live streamed 10 NFL games last season and partners with other top sports leagues like the NBA, MLB, and the PGA Tour; it also streams eSports. Twitter streamed 600 hours of live programming during Q4, with 50 percent of that sports-related. It also is looking at non sports-related content; it has deals with media giants like Bloomberg and CBS.
Other companies like Amazon and Facebook, which may start streaming MLB games, are also looking to ink streaming deals with major leagues.
Here are the NLL games that will stream on Twitter (all times Eastern):
- Colorado at Toronto, March 17, 7:30 p.m.
- Saskatchewan at Colorado, March 25, 9 p.m.
- Saskatchewan at Buffalo, April 1, 7:30 p.m.
- Vancouver at Saskatchewan, April 8, 9:30 p.m.
- Rochester at Colorado, April 15, 9 p.m.
- Georgia at Buffalo, April 22, 7 p.m.
- Saskatchewan at Calgary, April 29, 9 p.m.
