Twitter to stream NFL Thursday night games

The NFL is coming to Twitter. League commissioner Roger Goodell announced on Tuesday that Twitter has won the digital streaming rights and will stream Thursday night football games this year.

Goodell announced the news on Twitter. Twitter will stream 10 Thursday night games this year and pay about $10 million for the digital streaming rights, according to Bloomberg. The NFL had offered the streaming package to a number of companies including Facebook, Amazon and Verizon, which is in the final year of a sponsorship deal with the NFL, according to ESPN. Yahoo, which live streamed a game from London last year, was also offered the package.

"Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football," Goodell said in a statement, adding, "There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season. This agreement also provides additional reach for those brands advertising with our broadcast partners."

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said, "This is about transforming the fan experience with football. People watch NFL games with Twitter today. Now they'll be able to watch right on Twitter Thursday nights."

Earlier this year, the NFL signed deals with CBS and NBC to broadcast five Thursday night games. Those games will be simulcast on NFL Network. Twitter will stream the games live and have in-game highlights and pre-game Periscope broadcasts with players and teams, NFL.com notes. The games will be available to Twitter users worldwide and available on mobile devices, tablets and PCs.

Twitter has 320 million users and will control some of the advertising inventory for the games.

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