Twitter seriously wants to give Facebook a run for its money in its bid to transform into one of the largest online destination for live videos. According to The Information, the social network plans to announce next week that it’s opening up its live streaming API to media firms
It will also reveal partnerships “with firms that provide back-end services for live-video streaming.” While sports and news organizations can already host live streams on the microblogging platform, it typically requires extensive planning and partnership with Twitter. The open API will allow them to go live on the website whenever they want without having to use Periscope.
Twitter has been hosting a steady stream of live sporting (and e-sporting) events recently. It counted over 2 million viewers for Thursday Night Football last year and teamed up with Showtime to stream a boxing matchfor the first time. The company landed a deal to stream 15 e-sports eventsthis year and also secured the rights to National Lacrosse League games for 2017 and 2018.
We’re guessing all those will make up a small fraction of all the videos on the social network once media companies start taking advantage of the API. It sounds like the feature will be exclusive to news organizations, though — everyone else might have to stick to Periscope for their broadcasts.
