Twitter to double down live-streaming efforts after Grammy's coverage attracts 5.1 million viewers
Twitter's chief financial officer Antony Noto has revealed that around 5.1 million people watched Grammy's video content on Twitter during the awards show, saying the company intends to double its live-streaming efforts in 2017.
Beyonce accepts her Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album for Lemonade/ CBS
Speaking at the Goldman Technology Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday (15 February) the executive said the company plans to do this by bringing more shows to the platform in Japan and throughout the UK. He also predicted this would attract advertisers by causing them to take notice of improvements in the value of Twitter ads, which have the potential to reach larger audiences.
A report from CNBC quotes Noto as saying growth from this area of the business will come in the the next six to twelve months.
The platform has sought to position itself as the home of breaking news for its 319 million users since last year, but has also placed great emphasis on deals with sporting and entertainment broadcasters.
More recently this has included the company landing the rights to stream the PGA Tour and a deal with Dick Clark Productions to bring live programming from award shows exclusively to Twitter, including red carpet pre-shows for the Billboard Music Awards and 2017 American Music Awards.
At over five million The Grammy's viewerships figures come in higher than than the average audience number for Twitter's NFL live-streams. Twitter's global head of sports partnerships Laura Froelich said the streaming deal with the social giant went "incredibly well," garnering between 2.6 million to 31. million viewers per-game.
Just last week, it was reported that Twitter wanted to build on the success of the NFL deal by looking to partner with the league in a "bigger way."