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Twitter Adds WNBA Games, News Shows, Concerts in Try for Live Viewers

Twitter Adds WNBA Games, News Shows, Concerts in Try for Live Viewers

By Reuters | Updated: 2 May 2017 10:51 IST

Highlights

Twitter has struggled to win a major share of online advertising
The WNBA will live-stream a regular-season game weekly on Twitter
Music-promoter Live Nation Entertainment will stream some concerts

Twitter is expanding its live broadcasting portfolio with 12 new offerings that include WNBA games, a 24-hour Bloomberg News network and a show about gadgets from the tech news website The Verge, the company said on Monday.

Twitter, which has struggled to win a major share of online advertising, planned to present its plans at a conference in New York City organised by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a digital ad trade group.

Shares of the San Francisco-based company jumped 6.4 percent earlier on Monday to close at $17.54 after the Wall Street Journal reported on plans for the Bloomberg News network, pleasing some investors who had wanted more exclusive live content on Twitter.

The WNBA women's basketball league will live-stream a regular-season game weekly on Twitter starting this month and continuing through the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons, Twitter said in a statement.

Twitter Now Has 328 Million Monthly Active Users in Strongest Growth in a Year

Other new sports-related programs will include a 360-degree video of the 17th hole at the PGA's Players Championship golf tournament this month, and a weekly, live Major League Baseball show that has highlights and commentary. Twitter is already showing one Major League game a week this season.

Music-promoter Live Nation Entertainment will stream some concerts, beginning this month with a show by Grammy-winning country performers Zac Brown Band, Twitter said.

BuzzFeed News will broadcast a morning show on Twitter for an audience "that wakes up hungry" for trending tweets, and video news start-up Cheddar will stream an "opening bell" show each morning from the New York Stock Exchange.

Terms of the various deals were not disclosed.

Twitter Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto said in a statement: "Adding these 12 new live deals tonight is a testament to the success of our only-on-Twitter experience, combining high quality streaming video with our only-on-Twitter conversation."

Reuters, a unit of Thomson Reuters, competes with Bloomberg News in providing financial news and data.

Twitter suffered a setback last month when it lost a deal to live-stream National Football League games to Amazon.com.

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