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This fall, fans will have another way to watch Thursday Night Football. Games will be broadcast on TV and livestreamed on Twitter. Social media is the latest platform for NFL games. Fans can watch certain games on their phones via the NFL app, and last season, a London-based game was streamed on the Internet via Yahoo! for the first time.
Roger Goodell announced the NFL's plans via Twitter on Tuesday.
This fall Thursday Night Football will be streamed live @twitter so fans will see more of this. https://t.co/s6tbr9FjvY
— Roger Goodell (@nflcommish) April 5, 2016
Goodell also said in a statment,
"Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football. There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season. This agreement also provides additional reach for those brands advertising with our broadcast partners."
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in a press release, "This is about transforming the fan experience with football. People watch NFL games with Twitter today. Now they'll be able to watch right on Twitter Thursday nights."
The partnership includes not only a live stream of each Thursday game, but also in-game highlights and pre-game Periscope broadcasts with players and teams, according to NFL.com. Periscope is a live streaming app purchased by Twitter in March 2015. Twitter beat out both Amazon and Verizon to secure the deal.