Twitter scored an impressive 34-percent increase in average viewership for its live stream of Thursday Night Football from Week Two to Week Three.
For Week Four, count on a 100-percent drop.
The game between the Dolphins and Bengals will be televised only by NFL Network. As a result, it won’t be streamed on Twitter.
That was the arrangement from the get-go, with Twitter streaming only the games televised on NFLN and CBS or NBC.
The exclusivity of the broadcast relates directly to NFL Network’s arrangements with cable and satellite providers. The ability to charge the rate the NFL currently receives hinges on having a certain amount of game content.
This means that, during those weeks when games are televised by NFLN only, they won’t be available on Twitter. Which will make it hard to develop viewing habits on Twitter — and which undoubtedly will result in plenty of complaints from users who dial up Twitter on Thursday night in search of Dolphins-Bengals but can’t find it.