Twitter over the weekend announced another live streaming partnership, this time with the BBC. The new deal will bring live video and breaking news from the BBC’s U.K. election coverage to Twitter’s network. This is the first time Twitter has ever partnered with the BBC on streaming video, the company notes. The deal specifically involves five BBC election specials, including debates and election night results, among others.
The live stream will be available during the following BBC specials: the BBC Election Debate on May 31st; the two Question Time Leaders Specials on June 2nd and 4th; The Newsbeat Youth Debate on June 6th; and the Election Night Results Special on June 8th.
Similar to other live streamed events, the video coverage will be available in the Twitter application on both mobile and web, and will include live tweets that reference related hashtags, like #bbcdebate, #bbcqt, and #bbcelection. These video streams will be available from the dedicated site bbcelection.twitter.com, though they’ll also likely be found in Twitter’s “Explore” section, where live video is regularly promoted.
In addition to the curated selection of real-time tweets that display next to the video streams, Twitter will also display immediate commentary from BBC experts and BBC Reality Check alongside the other updates.
Twitter already has experience in running live video streams during election season. In the U.S., it partnered with Bloomberg to live stream the presidential debates ahead of the November 2016 election, for example. The company this month expanded on its earlier Bloomberg partnership to offer non-stop video news broadcasts from the media company across Twitter, including original reporting and other live content.
While the new deal with the BBC is nowhere near as expansive as Bloomberg’s for now, it does open the door for future negotiations in that area, if the BBC wants to continue its relationship with Twitter after the elections wrap.
The BBC partnership is also now one of several new deals Twitter has announced with the goal of having live video available on its site 24/7. This includes recent live streaming agreements for shows from the WNBA, BuzzFeed, Viacom, the NFL, MLB, PGA tour, Dick Clark Productions, Live Nation and others.
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