Twitter gears up for ‘24-hour live video streaming’

Twitter is gearing up to stream live video around the clock through its apps and website, in a move that will establish it as a 24/7 online broadcaster.

In an interview with Buzzfeed News, Twitter COO and CFO Anthony Noto said: “Our goal is to be a dependable place so that when you want to see what’s happening, you think of going to Twitter.”

He claimed that Twitter will “definitely have 24/7 content” and indicated it is working on more programming, but didn’t say when the micro-blogging network would start streaming full-time.

The news comes ahead of Twitter’s first quarter 2017 earnings announcement, which is due later today, and its Digital Content Newfronts event in New York next week.

It also comes after Amazon struck a deal with the NFL earlier this month to stream Thursday night American football during the forthcoming 2017/18 NFL season – taking the rights away from Twitter which had an equivalent deal for the 2016/17 season.

Despite this, Twitter has long highlighted the importance of video to its overall strategy. Speaking on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call in February, CEO Jack Dorsey said it is focusing on connecting its users faster with “their interests and topics they care about” as part of its broader push into video.

Dorsey said that Twitter’s focus is to match people with interests, which includes being able to watch an event directly on Twitter.

“The Explore tab is one area that you’ll be able to go to for any live event but we’re also looking at other areas that gets you to that much faster if you express an interest in a debate, for instance, or in a game or in a new show or entertainment,” said Dorsey.

The comments were made in response to a question about why it is “so hard to find live shows” on Twitter and whether the service planned to introduce a dedicated live viewing tab.

Last November Twitter expanded its video reach with the launch of a Twitter app for Android TV.

In March this year it launched the Periscope Producer API, opening up new ways for users to share live video – such as starting broadcasts directly from external hardware, software, cameras and web services.

Later the same month Twitter also started rolling out pre-roll ads for videos broadcast through its Periscope live-streaming service.