NFL Thursday Night Football Will Be Streamed Live on Twitter in 2016

The NFL made a groundbreaking announcement Tuesday regarding Thursday Night Football, as it will be available via a live stream on Twitter during the 2016 season.  

League commissioner Roger Goodell made it official through the following tweet:

Goodell added: 

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Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football. There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season. This agreement also provides additional reach for those brands advertising with our broadcast partners.

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The move comes on the heels of the NFL agreeing to a 10-game deal for Thursday Night Football with CBS and NBC in 2016.

According to Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.com, Twitter reportedly beat out the likes of Verizon, Yahoo, Amazon and Facebook for the streaming rights. The deal is reportedly for one year and is worth "a little more than $10 million," according to John Ourand of SportsBusiness Daily.

Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser expects a big spike in usage for Twitter, per Soshnick:

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This should be favorable for Twitter in terms of creating a product that will encourage people to show up and use it. Twitter has placed a lot of emphasis around its relevance to live activities. They haven't invested what presumably will be a lot of money in owning the rights to this sort of activity in quite some time. It probably will help them with user growth numbers.

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Mark Dominik of The SiriusXM Blitz also believes the deal will help the league connect with a younger audience:

Per NFL.com, New England Patriots owner and chairman of the NFL's broadcast committee Robert Kraft was among those who championed the importance of live streaming to Thursday Night Football's viability prior to the deal being struck with Twitter:

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Our mission when we first put games on Thursday nights in 2006 was to work strategically to make Thursdays a night for NFL football in the mold of what Monday and Sunday nights mean to millions of fans across the country. We've made great strides since that point, and growing the base of games with CBS, now with NBC, and soon with digital streaming will only help us solidify this night in the consciousness of NFL fans here and globally.

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Adding NBC to the Thursday Night Football equation already guaranteed that more eyes will be on the games in 2016, and the addition of Twitter will likely spike that number as well.

"This is about transforming the fan experience with football. People watch NFL games with Twitter today," said Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO, in the press release. "Now they'll be able to watch right on Twitter Thursday nights."

With many now opting to watch television shows and events through online streaming rather than cable or dish services, the NFL promises to hit a previously untapped market.

While the NFL is already the dominant sports league in the United States, partnering with a hot brand like Twitter promises to widen that gap even more.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.