*By Brittany Terrell*
Twitter's new slate of premium video content, nearly double what it offered last year, will include shows by some of the biggest TV networks, putting traditional television content on a social media platform that's disrupting long-held viewing habits.
"Obviously the big bet is television," said Kerry Flynn, a media reporter for Digiday. "And one of the biggest announcements was NBC as well as ESPN putting some of their biggest shows and channels on Twitter."
The agreements to stream TV content on Twitter may seem like a gamble for both sides, but Flynn said Tuesday in an interview with Cheddar that it can be an interesting and useful way to develop new viewing habits and test what works and what doesn't in an increasingly digital and fragmented media landscape.
Viewership for live sports, for example, has steadily declined for traditional media outlets like ESPN. In recent years, major sports leagues have turned to nontraditional outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Amazon to stream sporting events to a wider audience. The NFL, which streamed Thursday Night Football games on Twitter in 2016, will show weeknight games on Amazon for the second year in a row.
Flynn said the major sports leagues, and the TV networks that have traditionally paid big money for the broadcast rights, can afford to experiment on different platforms to see where they can find the most engaged audience outside the usual television paradigm.
Twitter has positioned itself to be a proving ground for live sports content, but what happens when ESPN's parent Disney launches its own streaming service in 2019?
"That's what's super interesting about putting Sports Center Live and Fantasy Football Live on Twitter because if Disney is going to offer something and ESPN already has their stand alone app, what are you doing?" said Flynn. "I agree that maybe longevity is brought into question, but Disney has the time and resources to experiment."
Playing content in various spaces might offer media companies more of an opportunity to diversify and increase ratings, said Flynn.
"I wouldn't say TV is dead at all," she said. "We obviously watch it. But its smart to try to boost the ratings by slowly diversifying it out."
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/twitter-doubles-down-on-video).
Robotics automation technology company Symbotic made its market debut on the Nasdaq via a SPAC merger with SVF Investment Corp. 3, a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by an affiliate of SoftBank Investment Advisers. Symbotic rang the Opening Bell at the Nasdaq to celebrate the occasion this morning. Its debut on Wall Street comes amid an urgent need for logistics solutions, as it aims to reimagine supply chains with its A.I.-powered robotic and software platform. Tom Earnst, CFO of Symbotic, and Vikas Parekh, managing partner at Softbank Investment Advisors, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Michelle Castillo joined Closing Bell to break down Elon Musk's announcement to SpaceX employees that the Starlink internet business might not see itself as an IPO until 2025, Twitter planning to hand over the user data he requested as a condition of the acquisition, and Warren Buffet-backed Chinese EV company BYD stating it will be supplying batteries to Tesla "very soon."
Meta announced its plans to join the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. This is leaving businesses and customers wondering what the tech giant has in store for the event. Nicola Mendelsohn, the vice president of the global business group at Meta, joined Cheddar News to preview what the tech giant will discuss at this year's festival. "We're going to be showcasing more about reels. We're going to be talking about our commerce solutions, are messaging solutions, and of course, the method of us speaking of new ways to kind of connect with customers," she said.
Paul Tracey, Founder & CEO of Innovative Technologies, and author of 'Delete The Hacker Playbook' and 'Cyber Storm', joins Cheddar to discuss the most effective ways to protect small businesses from cyber attacks, the labor shortage's effects on cybercrime, and how businesses and employees can stay cyber secure while working from home.
NASA has announced that the first official full-color images will be beamed back to Earth from the James Webb Telescope on July 12. Gregory L. Robinson, the director of the James Webb Space Telescope Program in the NASA Science Mission Directorate, joined Cheddar News to discuss the anticipated image drop. “We expect to see the universe different," he said. "Webb will allow us to see much, much clearer and deeper into the universe."
Dave Burg, EY Americas Cybersecurity Leader, joins Cheddar News to discuss the rise of quantum computing and how it can compromise existing security measures at play today, and what the timeline looks like for quantum computing to become a reality.
