Twitter Inc. has tapped an industry pro to help stream its $10 million package of National Football League games for this season: BAMTech, the streaming tech unit created by Major League Baseball.
The deal, according to people familiar with the matter, assures Twitter that it will have the help of a seasoned streaming outfit to help it air 10 NFL Thursday Night Football games worldwide this season. In contrast, last year Yahoo built the technology in-house to stream its first global NFL game.
BAMTech is also helping Twitter with its other sports-related live streams, one of the people said. Twitter has now signed deals with four major sports leagues — Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, NFL and the National Basketball Association — as well as the Pac-12 network for college sports.
BAMTech has made a name for itself as a white-glove service that charges more than other vendors but turns around products quickly with minimal hiccups for users. BAMTech already powers a variety of direct-to-consumer streaming services, including Time Warner Inc.’s HBO Now, Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Vue and World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.’s streaming network.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
