Twitter has tapped BAMTech to power its Thursday NFL live streams, according to The Wall Street Journal. Now the social media firm will be able to concentrate on developing its video platform by delegating the backend responsibilities to BAMTech.
BAMTech a good choice by Twitter
BAMTech is actually a spin-off by MLB Advanced Media, which manages the content delivery system and the backend for 10 million streams daily and around 25,000 live events (based on the figures from last October), reports Business Insider.
BAMTech has an amazing track record. It has a history of turning around the top streaming services in a cost-effective and timely way. The best evidence is probably its execution of HBO Now. HBO anticipated that the project would take about three years to complete at a cost of $900 million, but BAMTech completed the job in just four months and on a $50 million budget, according to Business Insider.
Other than this, BAMTech is quite established in sports. It started by powering the live video streams for Major League Baseball and then powered other leagues as well, like the PGA Tour, NHL, WWE, and CBS March Madness.
By delegating the video responsibilities to BAMTech, Twitter can dedicate its time and resources to its core product. Twitter’s video platform, which was criticized during its Wimbledon tennis tournament broadcast, will finally get more attention and probably some updates. In its second quarter letter to shareholders, the micro-blogging giant asserted that it was in the process of building and improving the live video streaming experience.
Live Events strategy could be a “make or break”
Analyst Rob Sanderson increased his price target for Twitter to $18.50 per share from $14 per share while maintaining his Neutral rating in a report dated September 1. However, the analyst underlined that much more is needed and that the social network is still “a story with great unmet potential.” The analyst raised his target price as he is using a higher multiple based on “the potential behind Live streaming deals.”
Sanderson is concerned that there may not be much time left, and the new Live Events features could be a “make or break” strategy. Twitter is probably betting its future on live streaming, considering that it won many major deals to stream big events and other interesting content online, like Wimbledon, Thursday night NFL football, the Republican and Democrat National Conventions, Bloomberg and more. These deals are surely attractive, but the company has much more work to do to realize the full potential of these deals.
