What Happened
Twitter, which struck a deal with the National Football League (NFL) to exclusively live stream 10 games this season, has been reportedly hawking their NFL ad packages for as much as $8 million. The 10-game bundle is said to include in-stream commercials with sponsorships of NFL highlights. Brands and agencies can also go for a $2 million package which does not include ad spots during the game, but instead gives advertisers pre-roll spots on other NFL content shared on Twitter. So far, it has sold half the live-stream inventory to sponsors, including Sony, Budweiser, Ford, and Nestlé, and it is promising category exclusivity to the big spenders to sweeten the deal.
Why Brands Should Care
It is interesting to see how Twitter is essentially acting like a TV network as it tries to figure out the bundling and pricing of its valuable yet limited NFL-related ad offerings. The microblogging service reportedly paid around $10 million to secure the simulcast rights for the 10 Thursday night games, a cost that should be easy to recoup if it manages to sell the ad bundles at their reported pricing. As Twitter pushes for more video ads, brand advertisers and agencies should keep an eye on this development as it may set a precedent for future ad buying in sports live streams.
Source: Digiday