Twitter Working on 24/7 Live Streaming Network of TV Shows to Rival Current News Outlets

[MacRumors]

Twitter is gearing up to launch an always-on, live-streaming video section of its apps and desktop site, which would run 24/7 and is ostensibly referred to as "Twitter TV" (via BuzzFeed News). The news comes from Twitter COO and CFO Anthony Noto, who said the 24/7 video update would be an expansion of Twitter's current live video efforts, which in the past have covered big events like the Presidential inauguration and pre- and post-shows for the 2017 Oscars.

Live video has become such a pillar of success and growth for the social network that it's helped Twitter gain access to advertisements in the 15-to-30 second range, for which advertisers "typically write big checks to TV networks." A beefier lineup of live videos on an always-on network could boost Twitter's profits even higher, although Noto noted that the launch of such a service will still take some time.

Specific type of content beyond news, sports, and entertainment reporting -- like scripted shows -- was not revealed, although it appears the company intends to strictly focus on current events coverage. Noto did mention that the company is "working on many, many things," however.

"We will definitely have 24/7 [video] content on Twitter," Noto said during an extensive interview about the company's live video strategy last week. "Our goal is to be a dependable place so that when you want to see what's happening, you think of going to Twitter."

Twitter will take some time to reach its 24/7 programming goal, Noto said, without offering a timetable. But he indicated much more programming in the works. "We're working on many, many things," Noto said. "There's a lot in the pipeline."

Ultimately, Noto is hoping that Twitter's 24/7 live video service could become a network that has a mix of "of ultra-premium content and not-so-ultra-premium content," meaning that viewers can tune in for shows they're interested in, and then use Twitter TV as background noise for the rest of the day.

Jeremy Liew of venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners referred to this type of content as "ambient digital video," and said Twitter could very well fill a gap left over by premium services like Netflix and HBO, which are always seeking full viewer attention.

From Twitter's perspective, becoming a source of always-on-in-the-background video in the way that CNBC is in airports would be a great outcome. "We think that is a great way to have the programming carried along with you during your day," Noto said. "Focus in on it when you hear something that's of interest, but then maybe not be 100% focused on it when it's not of interest. I did that myself during the debates."

Closer to debut is said to be a handful of new shows that Twitter will introduce as a means to boost advertising revenue in the near-term. The company is said to be pitching advertisers to spend money on its video content as soon as next week, but Noto didn't mention what kind of shows and videos are incoming. Likely candidates will be sports-related shows compared to SportsCenter on ESPN, with Twitter still reeling from the loss of the chance to stream NFL games over the course of the 2017-2018 season to streaming video rival Amazon.

The Twitter TV news comes alongside Twitter's better-than-expected first quarter earnings report, in which it generated $548 million in revenue with earnings of 11 cents per share, besting predictions that the company would net around $511 million in revenue with earnings of one cent per share. The number is still a noticeable decline from the $595 million earnings in the year-ago quarter. Twitter also introduced 9 million new users in the quarter, raising its monthly active users to 328 million.

Article Link: Twitter Working on 24/7 Live Streaming Network of TV Shows to Rival Current News Outlets

 

[Cloudkicker]

Hey, CBSN is an OTT & it's a damn good channel... commercial-free (save for CBS promos during "breaks"/slideshow).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBSN?wprov=sfla1

 

[earthTOmitchel]

Hey, CBSN is an OTT & it's a damn good channel... commercial-free (save for CBS promos during "breaks"/slideshow).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBSN?wprov=sfla1

I play CBSN daily from my Xbox One for background noise and the app is terrible. Constantly disconnecting from the stream and quitting out to the Xbox dashboard. I like the channel, it's way better than what ABC has which isn't even live video, but the quality of the actual app is in the gutter imo. Maybe it's better on other platforms, but I've taken to just streaming Bloomberg on YouTube lately.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

I'm... actually really ok with this idea. I watched the presidential debates via Twitter on the Apple TV and having access to tweets as a sidebar was kinda cool.

Additionally, my point of view as of late that Twitter, as a social network, is kind of the go-to for breaking news.

 

[GeneralChang]

Did the streaming thing really work out that well for Twitter? I mean, if so, more power to them I guess...

 

[Xavier]

I'm... actually really ok with this idea. I watched the presidential debates via Twitter on the Apple TV and having access to tweets as a sidebar was kinda cool.

Additionally, my point of view as of late that Twitter, as a social network, is kind of the go-to for breaking news.

I actually felt the same way. I watched the presidential debate through twitter and it is a pretty cool way to gather news on the Apple TV.

 

[0098386]

Oh now this could be neat. I get my news from Twitter these days, or rather, it alerts me to news posted by BBC etc. Plus with how fast communication is on Twitter you can see events unfolding easily.

Hopefully it'll also include fake news eradication. If any popular news story is fake then users are alerted to the fact(s).
[doublepost=1493220541][/doublepost]

Did the streaming thing really work out that well for Twitter? I mean, if so, more power to them I guess...

I found it useful, twitter strikes me as the least "region locked" social media app. It's dead easy to access, use, follow stories. I don't know if any other social media app hosted such videos. If they did they weren't as visible as Twitters.

 

[miniyou64]

They couldn't keep Vine up and running but they want to do this? Just shut the company down

 

[GeneralChang]

They couldn't keep Vine up and running but they want to do this? Just shut the company down

Um... yeah. Kinda like when you can't get the internet to work in one room of your basement so you burn your whole house to the ground, right?

 

[iDento]

I already use Twitter for that, they'll just make my life easier with that.

 

[ipedro]

Twitter is about the "now". In a world of on demand tv, Twitter's niche fits perfectly with live events. Live tv is an area that has yet to be done well in the post-cable era. I think that Twitter is right in pursuing this and it's potentially the answer to "what is Twitter and how can it become profitable?"

I like the idea of Twitter being an always on background noise and video feed. If you could have popular tweets, scrolling on the screen customized to those you follow, with trends updating on the side,current weather for your location and a video feed with an anchor and a panel discussing current news appearing on Twitter with a periodic break to scroll through Twitter Moments (which they finally got right by putting it in the explore tab), I think they can have something that would be able to compete with some of the major news channels.

 

[jblagden]

Oh now this could be neat. I get my news from Twitter these days, or rather, it alerts me to news posted by BBC etc. Plus with how fast communication is on Twitter you can see events unfolding easily.

Hopefully it'll also include fake news eradication. If any popular news story is fake then users are alerted to the fact(s).
[doublepost=1493220541][/doublepost]
I found it useful, twitter strikes me as the least "region locked" social media app. It's dead easy to access, use, follow stories. I don't know if any other social media app hosted such videos. If they did they weren't as visible as Twitters.

Depends on your definition of “fake news”.

 

[0098386]

Depends on your definition of “fake news”.

Well, *the* definition of it. Fake= not real, News= content designed to inform people of current events.

There was a recent one involving a left wing politician, I've mentioned it here before, everything originated from an anonymous forum (you can imagine which one) where a lot of people discussed how to disgrace this politician. Soon after a bunch of right wing/low-follower accounts on Twitter began spreading messages like "rumor has it XYZ" featuring the same content discussed on the aforementioned forum. Soon after that right wing fake news outlets began running these rumors - not so much as proving them, but simply repeating the lies in order to create confusion, chaos, misinformation. (I'm not going to mention names because I'm not perpetuating the lie)

(come to think of it there was another one about a UK politician too recently. A lie that was repeated, that his opponent engaged in but it was never an issue with her.)

It goes hand in hand with people losing their critical thinking abilities. Sad, scary times.

 

[jblagden]

Well, *the* definition of it. Fake= not real, News= content designed to inform people of current events.

There was a recent one involving a left wing politician, I've mentioned it here before, everything originated from an anonymous forum (you can imagine which one) where a lot of people discussed how to disgrace this politician. Soon after a bunch of right wing/low-follower accounts on Twitter began spreading messages like "rumor has it XYZ" featuring the same content discussed on the aforementioned forum. Soon after that right wing fake news outlets began running these rumors - not so much as proving them, but simply repeating the lies in order to create confusion, chaos, misinformation. (I'm not going to mention names because I'm not perpetuating the lie)

(come to think of it there was another one about a UK politician too recently. A lie that was repeated, that his opponent engaged in but it was never an issue with her.)

It goes hand in hand with people losing their critical thinking abilities. Sad, scary times.

I mean that a lot of left-wingers define fake news as news they don’t agree with. A great example being Facebook deliberately taking down conservative news.

 

[Billberryjuice]

There was a recent one involving a left wing politician

If you're on about who I think you are there are many who would dispute her labeling as "left wing" I hear you though.

I mean that a lot of left-wingers define fake news as news they don’t agree with. A great example being Facebook deliberately taking down conservative news.

ooh watch out for spreading fake (or at least unverified) news yourself!

http://www.snopes.com/is-facebook-censoring-conservative-news/

 

[Cigsm]

Shut a multi billion dollar company down that has more than a quarter billion users? Brilliant!

They couldn't keep Vine up and running but they want to do this? Just shut the company down

 

[0098386]

I mean that a lot of left-wingers define fake news as news they don’t agree with. A great example being Facebook deliberately taking down conservative news.

Well according to fact checking sites there do seem to be a lot of lies perpetrated by right wing outlets. Perhaps they shouldn't spread fake news if they don't want to be accused of doing so. *shrugs*

Edit: Huh, Snopes is saying this isn't the case at all.

 

[jblagden]

If you're on about who I think you are there are many who would dispute her labeling as "left wing" I hear you though.



ooh watch out for spreading fake (or at least unverified) news yourself!

http://www.snopes.com/is-facebook-censoring-conservative-news/

http://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/05/26/10-times-facebook-censored-conservatives.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...-suppressing-politically-conservative-content
https://www.intellihub.com/facebook-censors-pro-trump-negative-hillary-news/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rn-banned-Facebook-mentioning-censorship.html

[doublepost=1493389618][/doublepost]

Well according to fact checking sites there do seem to be a lot of lies perpetrated by right wing outlets. Perhaps they shouldn't spread fake news if they don't want to be accused of doing so. *shrugs*

Edit: Huh, Snopes is saying this isn't the case at all.

All of the fact-checking websites have a liberal bias, so they’re not really reliable.

 

[Billberryjuice]

http://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/05/26/10-times-facebook-censored-conservatives.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...-suppressing-politically-conservative-content
https://www.intellihub.com/facebook-censors-pro-trump-negative-hillary-news/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3603345/Conservative-activist-Lauren-Southern-banned-Facebook-mentioning-censorship.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rn-banned-Facebook-mentioning-censorship.html
And? Various articles reporting on the unverified claims of the ex-employees. Doesn't make them true.

"The plural of anecdote is not data."

All of the fact-checking websites have a liberal bias, so they’re not really reliable.

The hilarity of this statement aside, literally everything has at least some bias even if it's unconscious, so if you're going to dismiss anything biased as unreliable you might as well just stop reading the news altogether.

 

[jblagden]

And? Various articles reporting on the unverified claims of the ex-employees. Doesn't make them true.

"The plural of anecdote is not data."


The hilarity of this statement aside, literally everything has at least some bias even if it's unconscious, so if you're going to dismiss anything biased as unreliable you might as well just stop reading the news altogether.

I wouldn’t call anecdotes from ex-employees worthless. If you only take the word of fact sites, you’re not going to get very far. Just because something isn’t published on a site that you deem credible doesn’t mean it’s false.

 

[0098386]

http://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/05/26/10-times-facebook-censored-conservatives.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...-suppressing-politically-conservative-content
https://www.intellihub.com/facebook-censors-pro-trump-negative-hillary-news/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rn-banned-Facebook-mentioning-censorship.html

[doublepost=1493389618][/doublepost]
All of the fact-checking websites have a liberal bias, so they’re not really reliable.

I'm afraid they're just honest. If that goes against what your beliefs and sites are telling you; go out and do some soul searching. I'm central, neutral, currently voting left because WTF are right wing parties in the UK and US doing right now. I can see those fact checking sites are truthful.

 

[jblagden]

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahb...red-even-more-classified-information-n2321420