Twitter Looking to Launch Apple TV App for NFL Live Streaming

In a piece covering Twitter's successful effort to win live streaming rights for Thursday night National Football League games this season, The New York Times reports that Twitter is in discussions with Apple to launch a Twitter app for the Apple TV that would let Twitter's users watch the NFL games on Apple's set-top box.

nfl_twitter_apple_tv

Twitter has directed [Chief Financial Officer] Mr. [Anthony] Noto, a former Goldman Sachs banker with deep ties to the sports media industry, to lead the charge on live streaming and has assigned an engineering team to create its streaming video player. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, considers streaming a critical component of the company’s focus on “live” experiences, along with Periscope, its app that allows smartphone users to live-stream video.

To bolster the effort, Twitter is in talks with Apple to bring the Twitter app to Apple TV, which would potentially let millions of Apple TV users watch the streaming N.F.L. games, according to the two people briefed on the discussions.

Beyond the NFL, Twitter continues to strike deals for other live streaming content, and while the company's strategy for live streaming is not yet "fully formed," Twitter is considering how to bring that content users either in the main timeline or in the Moments tab of the current app for various platforms.

The NFL had solicited a number of companies, including Apple, to gauge interest in streaming rights for Thursday Night Football, but Apple ultimately declined to submit a bid.

Twitter's first Thursday Night Football live stream will take place on September 15 when the New York Jets visit the Buffalo Bills.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Tag: Twitter
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Popular Stories

iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
ios 26 1 slide to stop

iOS 26.1 Brings Back 2007 Feature in New Way

Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important. Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped. The new ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
Coffee Burgundy and Purple iPhone 18 Pro Mock 1

Leaker Outlines Potential New Colors for iPhone 18 Pro

Friday October 31, 2025 8:28 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro models could be available in new rich and warm color option, according to a known leaker. The Weibo user known as "Instant Digital" today suggested that next-year's iPhone 18 Pro models will be available in at least one of the following color options: Coffee, purple, and burgundy. The iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Pro were all available in ...
apple tv hd

Apple Launched Its Big New Vision for TV 10 Years Ago Today

Thursday October 30, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device. The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...

Top Rated Comments

drumcat Avatar
120 months ago
I, for one, appreciate the sense of irony MacRumors used in selecting a picture from the ColorBlindBowl game.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
120 months ago
Still no "edit" button and no anti-harassment policy. Priorities I guess....
I think an edit button for tweets is a non-starter. They're necessarily short, you can post a newer one. A machine can't tell if a tweet is being edited to only fix a typo, vs. changing the meaning. If they allowed editing, you'd have endless cases of folks getting hundreds or thousands of likes/retweets and then editing their tweet to "Retweet if you like Hitler and Satan!" or some variation. Think of how much fun that would be, say, in the political arena.

Agreed on anti-harassment. They need to be doing more than they are.

That said, this... this looks like Twitter "pivoting", trying to use their name recognition to make themselves into a media company instead of a text-message-broadcasting service (since it's hard to make money off the latter).
[doublepost=1471233586][/doublepost]
And the NFL thinks they can handle the streaming load?
Maybe Twitter's plan is just to send one guy with an iPhone to sit in the stands and use Periscope to broadcast it.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
120 months ago
Someone tell twitter there's a NFL streaming app and it's my called My Cable Providers Streaming App. They too have a streaming app. I use it all the time on my iPad and iPhone.
That works great for you, what about everyone else? Or do we all have to come over to your house to watch the game?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macduke Avatar
120 months ago
As a cable cutter since 2010 (instead invested the money along with some other smart budgeting and made enough to buy cars with cash and have minimal debt), I've given up on trying to watch sports. Trying to watch the olympics has been worse than cancer, and NBC won't even let clips of it be shown most of the time, and the clips they do post on YouTube are 30 second blips and many of them don't even show what happened or who won. There was a freaking clip of them showing Usain Bolt walking out and that was it! I'm done. I don't care any more. It's not worth it. I try to navigate all these stupid packages online for MLB and NFL and for what? To get blacked out so I can't even watch, even though I live 120 miles away from these teams? Half the stupid DTV signals don't reach my house. Adding an amplified antenna from Leaf (the premium 50 mile one) ends up causing me to lose a bunch of channels (they get blown out from what I've read online since those ones are closer), while I end up adding a couple I don't care about and still not even get CBS for AFC games which is only 25 miles away over gently rolling hills. So yeah, I've just decided to stop caring. And no, I don't live in a small town and have decent 150mbps internet with some parts of town getting gigabit.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
expectdelay Avatar
120 months ago
YES! MORE CONTENT!

(g dang everyone loves to complain, eh? seriously wtf people)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
drumcat Avatar
120 months ago
Someone tell twitter there's a NFL streaming app and it's my called My Cable Providers Streaming App. They too have a streaming app. I use it all the time on my iPad and iPhone.
Does YourCableProviderApp™ work outside of the Good Ol' U-S-of-A?

This is why owners with money want an NFL division in Europe and "Joe Fan" thinks it's terrible. The TV rights outside of North America are potentially enormous. It's clear there is an appetite for it, and yet #mericuh thinks that's all there is. Well, la-ti-da Mr. I Have Cable. The world is evolving, and your bubble isn't as relevant as you believe.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)