Facebook Live waving the white flag on sports content as Twitter announces dedicated programming

ANKARA, TURKEY - MARCH 16: A picture shows a man holding a cellphone in front of a twitter logo in Ankara, Turkey on March 16, 2017. 'Twitter' suspended 636,248 accounts for pro-terrorism and violence contents since the mid 2015 until the end of 2016. (Photo by Gokhan Balci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) /

As the prices for live sports content continues to escalate, Facebook has decided to pass while Twitter is going all in.

According to comments from Mark Zuckerberg, live sports aren’t part of the future for Facebook Live. The timing of this is interesting in consideration of recent announcements from Twitter on a massive expansion of its own live sports content.

At its first-ever New Fronts presentation on Monday, Twitter announced many new integrations for its platform. In addition to several news partnerships with sources like Bloomberg and Buzzfeed, Twitter is going to have several in-house live sports shows and games on top of some content which won’t be produced by Twitter but still only viewable on Twitter.

And there’s more: a 24-hour sports network that integrates Tweets into the broadcast #NewFronts
— Natalie Jarvey (@natjarv) May 1, 2017

Shortly after those announcements by Twitter, Zuckerberg made his comments about the future of sports on Facebook.

To be clear, Zuckerberg isn’t saying that sports video won’t be available on Facebook, whether live or otherwise. His statement is much the opposite. Zuckerberg is simply stating that paying out millions of dollars for exclusive rights to stream live sports content isn’t in Facebook’s plans.

Twitter, on the other hand, has committed to live sports content heavily now. The cost of acquiring the rights to produce this content, along with the cost of production itself, is significant. The hope is that the revenue from advertising and sponsorship will allow Twitter to turn a profit.

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Twitter’s history with live sports content isn’t promising and perhaps that’s part of the reason why Facebook has gone in a different direction. In 2016, Twitter paid $10 million for the rights to stream the NFL Thursday Night Football games for the 2016-17 season. Viewership totals weren’t strong, and advertising revenues reflected it. The streams weren’t exclusive, however, and Twitter’s ad space was limited. These new products are largely controlled by Twitter, allowing for higher revenue potential.

Whether Twitter cashes in on this investment remains to be seen, but they are committed either way. Facebook has also chosen its course. It’s possible for both companies to have made the smart decision, and the bottom line will be the ultimate decision-maker on whether each made the right move.