What Happened
Twitter officially entered the world of live sports streaming with a high definition broadcast of the ninth day of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. The microblogging social network set up a dedicated page where users can watch the live broadcast brought by ESPN alongside a stream of real-time tweets tagged with #Wimbledon. The livestream works on both desktop and mobile. There are currently no in-stream ads running during breaks, and Twitter does not seem to be selling Promoted Tweets specifically for the Wimbledon stream.
Earlier this year, Twitter inked a deal with the NFL to stream ten games live this fall, and this Wimbledon broadcast can be seen as a warm-up test for the company. Although Twitter is not selling ads for the Wimbledon broadcast at the moment, it is definitely selling ads for the NFL streams and has been reported to be hawking their NFL ad packages for as much as $8 million.
What Brands Need To Do
Twitter is not the only social network dipping its toes into live sports broadcasts. Earlier this week, Formula E announced that it will be broadcasting its upcoming finale through Facebook Live. While the new live-streaming model may undermine the lucrative deals major sports leagues have with broadcasters, media owners and sports leagues will have little choice but to embrace live streaming as its audience continues to grow. With live sports broadcasts gaining momentum, it brings a new way for brands to reach a wider range of viewers online. Therefore, brands targeting sports fans need to take heed of the developments in this field and start exploring live-streaming channels to see whose ad products best fit your campaign goals.
Source: AdWeek
