Sports Illustrated, Twitter Partner to Stream Thursday Night Football Games

As Twitter prepares for its first live-streaming NFL game Thursday night between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills, the social media giant will partner with Time Inc. to make it a more in-depth affair for fans. 

Sports Illustrated announced the partnership as part of a syndication deal with Twitter, noting the Thursday night games will also be immediately available to stream on Time.com and SI.com, with TheMMQB.com and Fansided.com getting streaming rights "eventually." 

In April, the NFL announced a deal with Twitter to stream 10 Thursday Night Football games online during the 2016 season. Fans who still own and watch television will still be able to view the games on CBS, NBC or the NFL Network. 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said during the announcement that Twitter is a huge part of driving the conversation around the sport:

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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 NFL experimented with a live-streaming event on Yahoo last October with the Buffalo Bills vs. Jacksonville Jaguars game in London.

Yahoo announced on Oct. 26 that game drew 33.6 million total viewers, and 33 percent of the total streams came from international viewers in 185 different countries. 

The NFL has been trying to expand its global reach for years, with things like the International Series that started in 2007 and a regular-season game in Mexico on Nov. 21, so building a streaming market that makes games more accessible to fans all over the world is a logical next step in the process.