Twitter is priming itself to play a central role on the upcoming battle for the rights to broadcast soccer in Australia, but has vowed it does not want to be a “disruptor”

Jonno Simpson, head of partnerships and food at Twitter Australia, told Mumbrella that the FFA broadcast rights hunt would be the first time Twitter had joined in the negotiation process for sporting rights locally.

The tender for the broadcast rights to the Hyundai A-League closes on Friday, with the FFA hoping to realise as much as $80m per season amid increased interest from free-to-air broadcasters.

The social media network has worked closely with the Seven Network in Australia, with its first major sports streaming event the Melbourne Cup, while in the US it has a $10m deal to broadcast the NFL’s Thursday Night Football.

More here:

https://mumbrella.com.au/twitter-readies-for-role-in-a-league-broadcast-rights-negotiations-413517

Very very interesting ...

This is pleasing - they don't wish to be the sole owner of the rights, just get their slice of the pie. If we can get a few games on Twitter with (I assume) a worldwide reach, that'll be pretty fantastic. Also is free to watch, so that's a plus.

I've watched one or two of their NFL games and the quality is HD, so no problems there imo.

Thought Twitter was on the downhill

Maybe it is and they're trying to diversify or expand on what they offer. 

:laugh:

What I will say is that it's a good thing that negotiations are ending soon - because the league is dire at the moment and you'd imagine there will be a big drop off in viewers or interest over the next few weeks if things remain the same. 

Bids in by Friday I think ?

Yep - is it reasonable to expect the TV announcement at the same time as the 'expansion criteria' announcement in January?

Doubt it.  TV deal might not demand expansion, or not offer enough for a 6th timeslot

IMO, FFA already have the 2 franchise zones decided on.  

TV deal will dictate whether they expand or go back to the "Consolidation" mantra. As long as CCM WP and NJ are on shaky ground, FFA wouldn't mind keeping possibles up their sleeve.

 I don't believe any of this current hype, let's see what's still being spun after the TV deal is done.

If they do expand, those 2 zones will be back-engineered so any leaked 'Success Factors' miraculously align with them.

Sure as heck won't release any criteria before any deals are sealed.

This. 

World first ?

excellent work tsf

Before anyone jumps up and down, I'm aware that this is a quote from the Chappelle Show. However the language isn't appropriate here.

It is a world first locally for the A-league. 

Agreed. The best way to make a word lose its power and make it not offensive any more is to make it taboo.

Diversify your language bruthas. 

I was just having this conversation with my mate the other day who loves the a league and is a wanderers member. 

The league is so boring and we have just lost interest as a whole. 

I used to watch at least 2 games every weekend now I barely watch one. 

The comp needs a freshen up bad more teams and promotion relegation who cares about logistics 

this will be interesting. we have seen that the a-league chat is all over social media and is not evident on mainstream media. this is mainly due to the a-league demographic being more younger than nrl and rugby who grew up with news on tv.

i like the idea. im starting to think potentially we will see a double or triple combo of.

all games live on: foxsports or optus tv or bein sports     +    saturday night game on: 7 or 9 or 10     +      online media rights on: telstra or twitter etc.

Being sports pls. 

Just fwiw Argentinian Primera Division got moved from Bein to YouTube. Unfortunately, I don't know what their numbers were, however on youtube they are stuggling to 800 viewers.