• Marketing Land
  • Sections
    • CMO
    • Social
    • SEM
    • SEO
    • Analytics
    • Display
    • Retail
    • MarTech
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Marketing Land
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Analytics
  • Display
  • Retail
  • MarTech
  • Resources
  • More
  • SUBSCRIBE

Marketing Land

Marketing Land
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Analytics
  • Display
  • Retail
  • MarTech
  • Resources
  • More
  • Home
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Video

Twitter’s debate live stream viewership exceeds NFL audience — again

3.2 million people saw Sunday night's president debate broadcast on Twitter, compared to 3.1 million who streamed last week's Thursday Night Football game.

Tim Peterson on October 11, 2016 at 12:06 pm
  • More
twitter-tv-video-remote-ss-1920

Maybe people’s interest in watching live broadcasts on Twitter is growing in general. Or maybe people are more into watching two people talking on Twitter than two teams playing football.

More people tuned into Bloomberg Politics’ presidential debate live stream on Twitter Sunday night than have tuned into any one of the three Thursday Night Football games syndicated on Twitter so far this season. The debate didn’t only beat out football in total number of viewers but also in the average number of viewers for any given minute during the live stream.

On Sunday night, 3.2 million people watched at least three seconds of the presidential debate live stream, compared to 3.1 million who checked out last week’s Thursday Night Football game on Twitter. And the debate’s audience averaged 369,000 viewers per minute — a metric that networks and advertisers use to measure TV shows’ audiences — whereas the Thursday Night Football game’s live stream averaged 236,000 viewers per minute.

There could be any number of reasons why the debate received more attention than the Thursday night game: people’s interests may have been piqued by Donald Trump’s latest scandal; more people may be around to watch on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET than Thursday at 9 p.m. ET; or Arizona-San Francisco is an even less thrilling matchup when one team’s starting quarterback is sidelined.

But this wasn’t the first time a presidential debate’s viewership on Twitter beat out an NFL game’s viewership on Twitter. The first debate streamed on Twitter in late September received 2.5 million total viewers and averaged 344,000 viewers per minute. The Thursday Night Football game broadcast on Twitter the prior week received 2.2 million total viewers and averaged 327,000 viewers per minute.

The debate live stream viewership exceeding the Thursday Night Football live stream audience isn’t the only pattern here. Each live stream’s audience was larger than the last. The first debate may have beat out the second NFL game, but the third NFL game beat out the first debate, and now the second debate has beat out the third NFL game. Now we’ll have to see if that pattern holds for this week’s Thursday Night Football game (and wonder how much of the boost had to do with Twitter putting the broadcasts on its home page, like Yahoo did).


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.



About The Author

Tim Peterson
Tim Peterson, Third Door Media's Social Media Reporter, has been covering the digital marketing industry since 2011. He has reported for Advertising Age, Adweek and Direct Marketing News. A born-and-raised Angeleno who graduated from New York University, he currently lives in Los Angeles. He has broken stories on Snapchat's ad plans, Hulu founding CEO Jason Kilar's attempt to take on YouTube and the assemblage of Amazon's ad-tech stack; analyzed YouTube's programming strategy, Facebook's ad-tech ambitions and ad blocking's rise; and documented digital video's biggest annual event VidCon, BuzzFeed's branded video production process and Snapchat Discover's ad load six months after launch. He has also developed tools to monitor brands' early adoption of live-streaming apps, compare Yahoo's and Google's search designs and examine the NFL's YouTube and Facebook video strategies.

Related Topics

Channel: VideoSocial Media MarketingTwitterTwitter: Business IssuesVideo

We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.
See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

MarTech 2021: March 16-17

MarTech 2021: Sept. 14-15

MarTech 2020: Watch On-Demand

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

April 13, 2021: SMX Create

May 18-19, 2021: SMX London

June 8-9, 2021: SMX Paris

June 15-16, 2021: SMX Advanced

June 21-22, 2021: SMX Advanced Europe

August 17, 2021: SMX Convert

November 9-10, 2021: SMX Next

December 14, 2021: SMX Code

Available On-Demand: SMX

Available On-Demand: SMX Report

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

White Papers

  • The Six Principles of Building a Memorable Customer Experience
  • 5 Reasons Agencies Adopt Marketing Automation
  • How to Land Higher-Paying Clients: A 7-Step Framework to Grow Your Agency
  • B2B Marketing Trends Shaping 2021
  • State of Email Marketing 2021 Report
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • Crawl Your Way Towards Better Search Results With Dynamic Rendering
  • The AI Revolution Is Coming to Every Stage of Your Buyer’s Journey
  • The Fundamentals of Link Building for E-Commerce & Affiliate Sites in 2021
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Attend SMX For Only $99

h
Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Channels

  • MarTech
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Mobile
  • Analytics
  • Retail
  • Display

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • SMX

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.