Faced with challenging financials and superior competition from Facebook, Twitter has signed a flurry of live-sports streaming deals to keep the acquisition wolf away from the door, BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield said.
Traditional media companies, he said, are looking for ways to address their "mobile shortcomings" and likely see Twitter, with its social media base and owned-and-operated OTT video platform, as a solution.
Twitter has recently signed deals with the NFL, Major League Baseball and NBA to stream both in-game and extra-curricular live-sports events.
Twitter serves around 300 million users and brings in $2 billion a year in revenue. But it has been losing around $125 million every quarter. And if the platform fails to catch on as a destination for mobile live streaming, it will become more of an acquisition target than it already is, analysts say.
FierceOnlineVideo has a complete report on the social media platform's plight here.