Twitter has reeled in one of the biggest content providers imaginable for its Amplify multi-screen program aimed at live TV viewers, partnering with the NFL for the remainder of the 2013-2014 season. The deal provides Twitter with NFL content from live games, including in-game highlights from NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football, that’s custom packaged and accessible to users around the world. The exclusive partnership with a social network is the first of its kind for the NFL.

Twitter announced Amplify this past spring, aiming to leverage how it’s now the social platform of choice for live TV viewers who want to communicate online about what they’re watching. Many popular TV events end up trending as hashtags on Twitter. The social net’s own analytics provider Bluefin estimates that 95 percent of online conversation around live TV happens on Twitter.

Amplify is meant to monetize that traffic more effectively. It creates formal partnerships with live content providers and draws advertisers to sponsor those streams as they take place. Sports are a major draw for the program, with the NBA, Major League Baseball, PGA, and NCAA college football and basketball listed as Amplify partners when it was announced. The deal with NFL is the first to involve content distribution over the course of an entire season, which includes the postseason and Super Bowl XLVIII.

NFL and Twitter are now said to be arranging sponsors for their program. Verizon Wireless, already an exclusive mobile partner to the NFL, has signed on. Adweek has reported that McDonald’s is expected to announce its participation in the coming days.

“With consumption habits shifting to mobile devices and companion experiences alongside broadcasts of our games, this partnership will provide us an additional channel to reach those users which is completely complementary to our flagship mobile product, NFL Mobile from Verizon,” NFL Media COO Brian Rolapp said in a press release.

With statements like that, and now its first social network deal, the NFL just might be getting closer to providing live games online. Prior to the start of this season, Google chief Larry Page and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell were said to have held an informal meeting. On the agenda was the possibility of airing live out-of-market games online, presumably on YouTube, once the league’s exclusivity deal with DirecTV expires after next season. While nothing came of it publicly, the signs point to recognition in the league that future growth may lie outside of the confines of broadcast television, and that may be especially true for its aspirations to reach a global audience.

Source: NFL