Bloomberg, Twitter partner for live streaming
July 13, 2016
Bloomberg Media – the consumer-facing media organisation of multi-platform media company Bloomberg – and Twitter are partnering to live stream select Bloomberg Television programmes, including Bloomberg West, What’d You Miss?, With All Due Respect and the network’s markets coverage. The live streaming partnership marks an expansion of Bloomberg’s digital video strategy, extending the network’s reach to Twitter’s massive, global and connected audience of over 800 million people.
“We continue to invest aggressively in innovative distribution models in order to deliver the most critical business and financial news and information to our audience of busy, on-the-go, global executives,” said Bloomberg Media CEO Justin B. Smith. “By partnering with Twitter, viewers from all over the world will now be able to leverage a powerful, real-time platform to consume and react to the news, accelerating our position as a leader in global business video, and offering new and innovative opportunities for our marketing partners.”
“Twitter is one of the fastest ways to find out what’s happening in global business and financial markets, and to engage in the live commentary about it,” said Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer. “Partnering with Bloomberg will give people on Twitter the best way to see live financial markets performance combined with the live commentary on the underlying drivers and implications.”
According to Gareth Capon, CEO of Grabyo, the official live streaming partner of Facebook, the partnership demonstrates the increasing role that social platforms are playing in video – and why this is an increasing threat to TV. “Today’s news breaks first on Twitter; before mainstream media and broadcast television. Increasingly, news outlets are using Twitter to break stories before other distribution channels, looking to own a story and drive traffic back to their owned and operated properties.”
“This partnership marks a shift in this strategy as Twitter users will no longer have to leave Twitter to get live video (TV) updates from Bloomberg. Moreover, the combination of live streaming and tweets means users can also follow the conversation on Twitter whilst watching the live show – combining a ‘second screen’ experience into a single platform. An added benefit is the promise of global distribution to Twitter’s 800 million plus total audience and the potential for significant new reach and audience for Bloomberg, which means additional TV advertising dollars.”
“The NFL deal was the highest profile live streaming deal for Twitter, but it’s clear this strategy will be extended to other content verticals where live conversations matter – such as news. Expect other social platforms including Facebook and YouTube to follow suit and look for exclusive distribution deals for their own live content. The rapid growth of social live streaming means there has never been a better time to be a content owner, now the challenge is to ensure linear TV ad dollars are not replaced by social live streaming pennies,” he suggested.