Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) announced Monday morning the company would be forming a partnership with Bloomberg TV to stream a 24/7 news service aimed strictly at Twitter users.
While Bloomberg already streams its television feed on its own site, this will be something slightly different. Bloomberg Media’s CEO, Justin Smith, said "it is going to be focused on the most important news for an intelligent audience around the globe and it’s going to be broader in focus than our existing network."
In other words, Bloomberg’s Twitter stream will be aimed more towards the masses and less towards Wall Street.
The streaming service won’t just be footage used from Bloomberg’s existing feed. It will include things like live reporting from reporters posted around the world, and video posted to Twitter by its verified users.
The channel hasn’t been named yet, and the partnership is expected to start streaming video by autumn. Presumably the channel will be supported by ads, although the details aren’t certain today.
Twitter first entered the streaming content market with a deal with the NFL to stream ten Thursday night games last season. Twitter was interested in renewing the deal for another season, but Amazon won the bidding.
In a competitive video market – rivals include Facebook, Amazon, and Google’s YouTube, among others – entering into this kind of agreement is important. In addition, many folks in the financial industry are big fans of Twitter. This partnership will likely interest those users.
Twitter shares rose $0.87 each or 5.3% to $17.34 in mid-morning Monday trading. Shares are up more than 16% in the last month.
