Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Twitter Inks Streaming Deal with Cheddar Amid Buyout Rumors

Read MoreHide Full Article

After NFL, NBA, Bloomberg and more, Twitter Inc. has signed yet another live streaming deal. This time around Twitter has brought on board live video news network, Cheddar, which will broadcast Opening Bell markets coverage live, daily from 9 am to 10:30 am EST and Closing Bell coverage from 3 pm to 4 pm EST.

Twitter CFO Anthony Noto said “Partnering with Cheddar will give people on Twitter another way to watch and discuss the day's top stories as they unfold live all on one platform." Cheddar CEO Jon Steinberg  on the other hand said "We are thrilled and proud to make it the exclusive free to access platform for our new hour of closing bell coverage 'Finance Twitter' is giant, and we are excited to be its digital-first closing bell network."

Twitter is now going full throttle with “live”. It is exploring options beyond live news and the series of diverse live streaming deals are a reflection of that. The company inked streaming deals with CBSN to stream both Republican and Democratic conventions. It also brought on board Bloomberg. Twitter will be live streaming market coverage as well as air several Bloomberg shows. Twitter live streamed special Wimbledon coverage, which is important as the company gears up to live stream 10 NFL matches. It won the rights to stream NFL for $10 million in April.

The first NFL match this Thursday is an acid test for Twitter. Its brand advertising business is struggling. With NFL, the company hopes to bring in more users and at the same time help marketers reach a younger demographic, mostly millennials, through its Amplify program. At its last earnings conference call, Twitter said that online video budgets are over $10 billion alone in the U.S and streaming deals will fuel a “long-term shift away from desktop video to premium mobile environments and we believe Twitter is well positioned to benefit from that shift.” The company has collaborated with the likes of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Nestlé, Sony Pictures, and Verizon for ad packages for NFL games that will be streamed this month.

Apart from NFL, it has collaborated with NBA and Major League Soccer, NHL. It has also signed a deal with 120 sports and Pac-12 networks to stream collegiate sports events.

Twitter remains in trouble with its shares down over 33% in the past one year. Last week’s board meeting also did little to boost shaken investor confidence. Investors were hoping that the meeting would result in some concrete plan for a sale or a turnaround. But it appears that management under the leadership of Jack Dorsey has refrained from arriving at a decision just yet and has instead bargained for some more time to “turn things around” so that it can stay independent.

At present, Twitter carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the tech space include Changyou.com Limited , NetEase, Inc. (NTES - Free Report) and NetApp, Inc. (NTAP - Free Report) . All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).You can the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Interested in IPOs? Check out the special edition of Zacks Friday Finish Line below, where Editor Maddy Johnson and Content Writer Ryan McQueeney interview Kathleen Smith of Renaissance Capital about the IPO market in 2016 (see part two here).

Confidential from Zacks

Beyond this Analyst Blog, would you like to see Zacks' best recommendations that are not available to the public? Our Executive VP, Steve Reitmeister, knows when key trades are about to be triggered and which of our experts has the hottest hand. Click to see them now>>


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


NetApp, Inc. (NTAP) - free report >>

NetEase, Inc. (NTES) - free report >>

Published in