Twitter wants to be more than a platform for 140-word messages and is reportedly seeking partnerships with television networks to acquire high-quality video and advertising.
"[P]eople familiar with the matter" told Bloomberg that Twitter has talked with Viacom (NYSE: VIA) and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) NBCUniversal.
The deals would reportedly allow Twitter to sell advertising to accompany the video content and split the revenue with the networks. Things could happen fast, as "[o]ne or more deals could be reached by mid-May," the sources told Bloomberg, while also suggesting that this would not be the end of the line for video deals and other players could be involved in the near future.
Video seems to be something that would appeal to Twitter users, who apparently chat a lot about their TV watching experiences. According to Nielsen data cited in the Bloomberg story, about a third of active Twitter users tweeted about something they watched on TV last June. This was slightly more than the 26 percent who'd used the social media site to talk about TV at the beginning of the year.
Twitter and NBC are old collaborators. The two teamed up for last summer's Olympics in London, with NBC promoting its coverage and Twitter tracking its users' posts.
Twitter spokesman Gabriel Stricker, Viacom spokesman Mark Jafar and NBC spokeswoman Cameron Blanchard declined to comment on the Bloomberg story.
For more:
- Bloomberg carried this story
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