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Twitter plumps for experience with appointment of Todd Swidler as head of live video

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By John Glenday | Reporter

May 23, 2017 | 2 min read

Twitter has reinforced its play for the live video market with the appointment of Todd Swidler, former head of social gaming specialist ESC Games and head of video at Bloomberg, to lead its own live video push.

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Twitter plumps for experience with appointment of Todd Swidler as head of live video

In plumping for experience the micro blogging platform will be hoping to fast track its own efforts to corner the lucrative live video market, led by COO Anthony Noto who has long pushed the case for live video within Twitter.

That push came to fruition last year when Twitter began streaming Thursday Night Football as part of a content deal signed with the NFL, although that partnership is no more after the NFL switched allegiance to Amazon Prime.

Undeterred Twitter has continued to strike new content deals however, including the live-streaming of US election debates, as it gears up to introduce an ambitious 24/7 sports channel and a live, daily show fronted by comedian Phoebe Robinson.

Such efforts saw Twitter stream a record 800 hours of live video over the first quarter, attracting 45m unique visitors to the platform, providing Swidler with the perfect launch pad to monetise this work by maximising the product, marketing and sales potential.

Twitter has also signed a new multi-year deal with the NFL to transmit live football content to fans around the world.

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