The battle for eyeballs in the live-streaming space has a new competitor. Twitter has entered the fray of live sports streaming with the announcement of a deal to bring viewers live football action. The social platform placed the winning bid (we don’t know how much exactly) for global broadcasting rights. 

Ten  games will be live streamed on Twitter’s global platform every Thursday night for the upcoming football season, according to a release from the football league. However, despite winning global rights, the live stream will not be available in Canada.

Rogers has the rights to Thursday night NFL games in Canada through the end of the 2016 season. Last week the media co made its standalone streamer Sportsnet NOW available direct-to-consumers for $24.99 a month. The NFL is the only major partner that is still in discussions around live streaming rights for Sportsnet NOW, according to a Rogers Media representative.

As the exclusive live OTT partner of the NFL, the social platform will provide viewers globally with a free digital stream of the Thursday night games that will also be broadcast live on NBC and CBS, and simulcast on the NFL Network.

The Twitter streams of the games will be available on all platforms: mobile phones, tablets, desktop and connected TVs.  In addition to the games, Twitter will also air pre-and post-game live broadcasts on Persicope, which will feature player and teams stats, interviews and commentary. 

The first-ever free global live stream of an NFL game (an international match between the Buffalo Bills vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars), was hosted on Yahoo in October 2015 and pulled in 15.2 million viewers, two-thirds of whom were from the U.S.  

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