Twitter’s first-ever NewFronts presentation, in which a raft of new live-streaming and premium original programming deals were unveiled, takes the company further along a particular path: taking two-screen experiences to one screen “in a way that no one else can,” according to CMO Leslie Berland.
The company announced a dozen new collaborations for hundreds of hours of new exclusive, live original programming, live games and events, live syndications, extensions of existing live deals and new always-on live streaming premium content to the platform.
Among those deals was a live streaming 24/7 news network to launch this fall in partnership with Bloomberg Media along with news collaborations with The Verge, BuzzFeed News and Cheddar.
In this interview with Beet.TV, Berland explains how Twitter gathers insights from users to fuel what it can provide to advertisers, some of which have been with the company since it launched its advertising platform six years ago.
“You get all these interesting perspectives and insights and we also get that insight and feedback from our agency partners and our brand partners,” says Berland. This process yields marketer opportunities “even more valuable than they can get from anyone else. These partnerships run very deep.”
In the last quarter, Twitter streamed more than 800 hours of live premium content from leading brands across sports, news and entertainment. At the NewFronts it detailed 12 new live deals.
In the sports realm, Twitter is adding, among other offerings, live streaming of WNBA games, a new three-hour, once-weekly live stream MLB program and a “24/7 linear experience” called STADIUM that will integrate exclusive live collegiate sporting events, extensive highlights, classic games and daily live studio programming.
“Twitter is live, we’re open and the entire world is watching,” says Berland. “When we bring video and real time events and live experiences together and marry that with the conversations on Twitter, it is above and beyond.”
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the IAB’s Digital Content NewFronts 2017. The series is sponsored by the IAB. For more videos from the the #NewFronts, please visit this page.
