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Business

Twitter is having an identity crisis

By
Claire Atkinson
Published May 1, 2017
Updated May 2, 2017, 2:17 p.m. ET

It got a lot harder on Monday to tell if Twitter is a micro-blogging site disguised as an over-the-top TV service — or vice versa.

The San Francisco company, struggling to grow its user base and revenue and monetize its content, will stream a host of new live video on its platform, including news, entertainment and sports.

Advertisers typically pay a premium for live TV since viewers are more likely to pay more attention to it.

The new video content will include:

  • A weekly regular season WNBA game through the 2019 season
  • A new three-hour weekly MLB program — in addition to already streamed weekly ball games
  • A new 24/7 sports service, called Stadium, featuring college sports
  • The TPC Sawgrass PGA Tour event
  • Twitter will also host concerts including the Zac Brown Band thanks to a deal it has with Live Nation.

In addition, Twitter boss Jack Dorsey was at Bloomberg LP headquarters on Monday with founder Mike Bloomberg to announce that the business news service would produce and tailor a new 24-hour live global news service exclusively for Twitter.

It debuts this fall.

The mixture of news excited investors, who sent Twitter shares up 6.5 percent, to $17.54. The stock is up nearly 20 percent in the last five trading days.

The addition of the live WNBA games comes after Twitter streamed 10 Thursday night NFL games last season — but lost those rights to Amazon’s enormous wallet.

Amazon paid $50 million to whisk away the slate of games — after Twitter ponied up $10 million last year. Twitter retains an NFL highlights package.

After struggling for several quarters, Twitter added 9 million users in the first three months of 2017. It has decided to focus on video as a way to goose dwindling revenue.

Twitter’s pitch is that advertisers can “be what’s happening” — in other words, be part of news-making events while they’re happening.

Twitter outlined its burgeoning cash outlays for video in front of advertisers Monday evening at its NewFront presentation.

Other news content is coming from other providers including BuzzFeed News, business content site Cheddar and tech site The Verge.

Meanwhile, IMG is set to produce a behind-the-scenes show on the fashion catwalks of New York, Milan, Paris and London in September.

Twitter has been drawing new users by streaming Grammy red carpet coverage and PBS’ stream of the president’s address to Congress, to name a few high-profile events.

Twitter is facing off against other social networks, including Facebook and Snapchat, which are also aiming to turn video into ad dollars.

Meanwhile, Dish Chief Executive Charlie Ergen, who runs over-the-top service SlingTV, noted on an earnings call Monday: “Vast majority of OTT [over-the-top] sessions are not occurring on TV screens.”

Twitter’s pitch to advertisers took place at Cedar Lake and featured CEO Dorsey and Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto.

Guests included NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, ESPN analyst Jay Williams and TV producer Ben Silverman.