Twitter Partners With Bloomberg To Stream 24-Hour News

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Twitter will now run live Bloomberg videos 24 hours a day, according to The Wall Street Journal. As of now, there is no word from either party, but The Wall Street Journal states that Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Bloomberg LP founder Michael Bloomberg will announce the partnership in an event for advertisers.

Will the Bloomberg deal compensate for the NFL loss?

Twitter has reportedly inked a deal under which exclusive content will be produced by mixing live news reported from Bloomberg’s global bureaus with videos posted by Twitter users. Ads are believed to be the major income stream, and Bloomberg will supposedly control the content of the feed, notes The Verge.

According to the WSJ, Bloomberg media’s chief executive officer, Justin Smith, stated, “It is going to be focused on the most important news for an intelligent audience around the globe and it’s going to be broader in focus than our existing network.”

Twitter is running low on capital and posted declining revenue this quarter (the first time since going public). Opportunities to stream even more NFL games have been shattered, as Amazon took away the pie by paying five times more than the micro-blogging platform.

Twitter’s live-streaming of Bloomberg content could prove a masterstroke considering the tremendous increase in video consumption on Periscope and on Twitter’s own platform following the launch of auto-play videos. However, whether or not live video can translate to higher advertising revenue stream will be worth watching.

Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial and operating officer, “We really think we can reach audiences that are not paying for TV and are watching television on the go and we think Bloomberg is the perfect partner for us to start with.”

Twitter gains some momentum

Twitter’s declining user base has been a concern over the past few quarters, and the company is making genuine efforts to convince advertisers that it will revive its user base in line with expectations. In a bid to do so, the company has already updated its product offerings such as live video broadcasts from its app and new features.

In October, Dorsey released an internal memo defining one of Twitter’s missions, which was to be the “people’s news network.” The micro-blogging site has also been streaming news and sports on mobile devices since last year. This, according to analysts, could help increase the interest of a media company as an acquirer.

Such efforts seem to be bearing fruit, as the company surprised the Street when it posted a  positive first-quarter result last month. What came as a relief to shareholders was the increase in active users by about 9 million over the prior year quarter. Twitter’s active average monthly active users surged 6% year on year to 328 million in the first quarter.

Twitter will be hoping to accelerate its momentum with its 24-hour programming service, but how well it will be received by users will be known only when Twitter forays into the nascent live video space.

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