The Unlikely Duo of Twitter and Thursday Night Football

Twitter is now the newest platform to view National Football League games.  Twitter has created a new feature to use for “Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Microsoft’s Xbox One” (Benner, 2016).  It will also be available for through smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.  At this time, it will only be airing the Thursday Night football games, not all games.  It will also air sporting events of the MLB, Pac-10 athletic collegiate conference, and a few other sources of entertainment. 

            So, you are probably getting a pretty clear picture of what the product is by now.  It can hook right up to your streaming device or through your smartphone and bring you live entertainment by multiple sources and sports.  What makes this any better than another experience?  That could probably be answered by taking a peek at the price.

            At this point, you are probably asking yourself, “What’s the catch?”  There is no catch!  The app is free!  That’s right, the price of the new feature that allows someone to stream live entertainment, such as Thursday Night Football, is free!  You do not need to buy an Apple TV or smartphone, but just download the app for this new service by twitter.

            It also couldn’t be easier to catch the free, live streaming action.  As mentioned above, it is offered through devices like Apple TV and smartphones.  This means that the action could take place in the comfort of your own home.  The product is relatively new though.  It was just released on Wednesday.  The places that the app is available are thestreaming devices mentioned in the opening paragraph.

            Since twitter is a social media platform, then what is it doing streaming live events on Apple TV, or Amazon Fire?  This answer can be found in the new strategy of the company.  A strategy is commonly known as a plan or plan of action for the long-term goals of a company.  This new app is a step in the right direction of hopefully achieving the goal to “increase its user base” (Benner, 2016).  The company plans to reach this goal by “drawing a large mainstream audience” (Benner, 2016).  Twitter is hoping that their new strategy will be able to reach more audiences that are not familiar with, or do not care much for, their main product, which is a social media platform. 

            However, Twitter is taking a fairly large risk on their venture into this new territory.  Twitter will be paying the NFL “around $1 Million a game” for their streaming rights, which they beat Facebook for (Benner, 2016).  Since the risk is large, the profit that they are hoping for will be larger.  The profit is the reward a company receives in exchange for undertaking a risk and creating something of value within the offerings. 

            If Twitter came to this strategy decision by environmental scanning, they most likely focused on the social, technological, and competitive forces over the economy and regulatory forces.  The new technology was innovated by companies like Apple and Amazon to reach a new audience.  Then the new features for these devices were invented and Twitter was forced to keep up.  This new audience created the social forces that helped Twitter to see the wave of new customers that use things like Apple TV over regular cable television.  Finally, they had to beat out large players like Facebook and other technologically advanced companies in order to gain the rights to stream the NFL games.

            This new service by Twitter is very new and very exciting.  It is definitely different for social media company to be expanding into this area of technology. 

References:

Benner, Katie. "New Twitter App Streams N.F.L. Games and Other Sports." N.p., 14 Sept. 2016. Web. 15 Sept. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/technology/new-twitter-app-streams-nfl-games-and-other-sports.html?ref=business&_r=0>.

How the NHL is Selling Hockey

            This September will be the first time the world will have the chance to see the best hockey players in the world compete against each other since the 2014 winter Olympics.  While that is only about a two and half year difference, it is much longer than the wait from the last World Cup of Hockey in 2004. 

            The competition will be comprised of eight teams: Canada, Czech Republic, Europe, Finland, North America, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.  Team Europe will contain a player from most of the other European countries that are not represented at the event.  North America will be the best players from the United States and Canada that are 23 years old and younger. 

            The product, the World Cup of Hockey, has a very different incentive than that of the newly developed iPhone 7 by Apple.  While the iPhone 7’s objective are to provide a profit for Apple, the World Cup of Hockey’s objective is to create attention and a buzz surrounding the sport of hockey.  By doing so, the interest of hockey will help to grow the game domestically and internationally. 

            One of the main reasons that the National Hockey League (NHL) is holding the event is to attempt to create a larger market.  They are doing this by focusing on the common target market, hockey fans, and those that often to do not always follow professional hockey.  For instance, I do not follow soccer throughout the regular season, but when the World Cup occurs, I will often follow the United States national team.  In countries like the United States, where the following for hockey is not as strong year-round like Canada or Russia, the event should spike interest.  With the NHL season starting within a month after the tournament, the executives are probably hopeful that the peaked interest of the sport will carry into the regular season.  Essentially, the purpose of this event is to promote the sport of hockey on an international platform.

            The price of the tickets vary, like most sporting events.  The seats that are farthest from the ice will be the cheapest and the seats closest will be more expensive.  The tickets are obviously open to a range of financial situations and geographic backgrounds. 

            The event will take place in Toronto, Canada.  All the games will be held at the Air Canada Centre (NHL.com).  This central location in North America displays the importance of the fan hood that will come from Canada, but also close enough to the United States that it will draw quite a bit of attention.  Even though the location of the event is in North America, this should not take away from the attention it will be receiving from countries in Europe and those places that are being represented at the tournament.  Choosing Toronto was a strong marketing strategy by the NHL. 

            Finally, the promotion for the World Cup of Hockey has been on NHL.com, NHL games in the 2015-2016 season, and on sports television programming, like ESPN.  The most common promotions have been through a series of commercials with a hockey broadcaster named “Reg Carling” who interviews some of the best and most popular players from around the world.  This includes stars like Patrick Kane, Patrice Bergeron, Nicklas Backstrom, and many more.  However, the best commercial that was produced from this event was “Who Owns Hockey”.  In this commercial, players and fans from all countries competing give reasons why their country “owns hockey”.  It is a great marketing strategy from the NHL to use members of all of the competing countries in such a strong advertisement that creates excitement to watch their favorite countrymen fight for the right to say that they “own hockey”.