Unbeknownst to some, the NBA actually has a rather large presence on Twitter. NBA discourse on Twitter is massive, and the most recent news will surely have both NBA fans and Twitter savvies on their toes. Solidifying its partnership with Twitter, the NBA has signed a new content deal that will see it provide exclusive offers, highlights, and even free LIVE game segments from select games! All of these come bundled in a new multi-year contract.
“Since joining Twitter in 2009, the NBA has built one of the largest Twitter communities in the world, with more than 380 million followers globally across all league, team and player platforms.”
The same partnership has afforded both Twitter and the NBA significant opportunities to expand fan engagement and connection, which it looks to further develop in this new deal. As part of the new set of initiatives, Twitter will continue its #NBATwitterLive option for the second halves of select NBA on TNT games, which is essentially FREE pay-per-view (PPV). How oxymoronic is that?
One crucial addition to the new contract is that the NBA will also air exclusive Twitter Spaces content throughout the coming season. They outline:
“The NBA’s 40 scheduled Twitter Spaces will include 75th Anniversary-themed versions planned around tentpole moments and marquee events such as Christmas Day, NBA All-Star and the NBA Finals. The Spaces will feature NBA players, legends and other members of the NBA family discussing on-court storylines and reflecting on the league’s storied 75-year history.”
Twitter is still in the process of making Spaces one of their key elements, building on the rising popularity of social audio that started just earlier this year. Though Spaces has become one of the more standout features Twitter has recently come up with, there is still plenty of room to improve on it with respect to facilitating optimal discovery and maximizing user interest. Adding big-brand exclusives and popular content will allow Spaces to somewhat go the distance, potentially attracting more listeners while making it something more to consider.
The new additions to NBA Spaces will also now allow sponsorships, providing brands with more opportunities to connect and engage with NBA fans through live audio. This could potentially spell new monetization options for Twitter as well, allowing it to close the gap in terms of higher total revenue generation.
The Wrap
It’s always impossible to tell whether a new initiative will immediately succeed or fail from the get go. Will Spaces be able to maintain its momentum as COVID restrictions ease all around the world? We say this because part of its early gains did stem from people’s needs of alternate social outlets during the earlier parts of the 2021 iteration of the pandemic.
Needless to say, recent efforts by Twitter focusing on more comprehensive development of its Spaces element spell for it a slightly brighter future. Perhaps with a little more fine-tuning, and with the help of content-exclusives such as this, Twitter Spaces may yet make it as a prominent format.
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