Twitter and Snapchat are in early discussions with major sporting codes to secure streaming rights, following Twitter’s deal to stream the 2016 Melbourne Cup worldwide.
According to the Financial Review, Twitter has met with Football Federation Australia, Cricket Australia and other sporting codes and publishers to potentially stream sport on the social media platform, to complement existing broadcast and streaming arrangements.
Twitter has ramped up its interest in sports streaming this year, following a $10 million deal in the United States to live stream ten NFL matches, and a deal with Seven to stream highlight clips of the Rio Olympic Games. Snapchat also struck a deal with the broadcaster to share content from the Olympics through Live Stories.
Snapchat executives are reported to be in the country this week, and will also meet with representatives from sporting codes, publishers and television networks.
The discussions are said to be in the preliminary stages, but are a major component of the future of both social media platforms and traditional broadcasters. Both are seeking to leverage the benefits of collaboration, with social media platforms seeking high quality content to drive usage of their services, and traditional broadcasters using streaming to push more viewers to their programming.
