NFL to stream on Twitter, Canadian OTT rights still up for grabs

The National Football League (NFL) announced Tuesday a new deal with Twitter Inc. to stream NFL games on the social media platform, and though Canadians won’t have access, whether they’ll be able to watch through Rogers Communication Inc.'s Sportsnet Now OTT service instead still hasn’t been determined. Both Rogers and the NFL confirmed the deal in which Twitter will live-stream 10 NFL games over the 2016 season won’t apply to Canada. “The games will not stream on Twitter in Canada,” Rogers spokeswoman Andrea Goldstein said in an email. But that doesn’t mean Rogers already has those rights locked down. While "Sportsnet has the exclusive Canadian rights to the Thursday Night Football package," she said “conversations with the NFL continue regarding live streaming rights to NFL games on Sportsnet Now." When asked about whether that means Rogers doesn’t have the OTT rights for NHL content for the new OTT Sportsnet Now service it launched last week, Goldstein said: “That is correct. The NFL remains the only major partner in which discussions are ongoing about live streaming rights for Sportsnet Now.” The NFL said in a press release that Tuesday “Twitter will stream the 10 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by NBC and CBS, which will also be simulcast on NFL Network, securing the league’s ‘Tri-Cast’ distribution model.” The streams will be free, won’t require authentication and will be available globally, it added. NFL spokesman Alex Riethmiller confirmed in an email that doesn’t include Canada. Rogers Sportsnet Now service includes live streams of the six Sportsnet linear channels and costs $24.99 a month. Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL properties at Rogers, told the Wire Report last week that the company decided to launch the service because a “tipping point” in its customer base meant there was now enough demand for such a service. He said “this is what a certain segment of our consumer base is asking for. You would have to have your head in the sand over the last three to five years if you weren’t paying attention to the way people consume video content.” Analysts predicted take-up of the service could be limited due to the high price. Aravinda Galappatthige, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, said in a research note last week that while sports “has generally been considered the mainstay of linear TV” Rogers’ launch of Sportsnet Now “marks a significant challenge to that thesis.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Shruti Shekar at sshekar@thewirereport.ca

NFL to stream on Twitter, Canadian OTT rights still up for grabs

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