*By Brittany Terrell*
Twitter's new slate of premium video content, nearly double what it offered last year, will include shows by some of the biggest TV networks, putting traditional television content on a social media platform that's disrupting long-held viewing habits.
"Obviously the big bet is television," said Kerry Flynn, a media reporter for Digiday. "And one of the biggest announcements was NBC as well as ESPN putting some of their biggest shows and channels on Twitter."
The agreements to stream TV content on Twitter may seem like a gamble for both sides, but Flynn said Tuesday in an interview with Cheddar that it can be an interesting and useful way to develop new viewing habits and test what works and what doesn't in an increasingly digital and fragmented media landscape.
Viewership for live sports, for example, has steadily declined for traditional media outlets like ESPN. In recent years, major sports leagues have turned to nontraditional outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Amazon to stream sporting events to a wider audience. The NFL, which streamed Thursday Night Football games on Twitter in 2016, will show weeknight games on Amazon for the second year in a row.
Flynn said the major sports leagues, and the TV networks that have traditionally paid big money for the broadcast rights, can afford to experiment on different platforms to see where they can find the most engaged audience outside the usual television paradigm.
Twitter has positioned itself to be a proving ground for live sports content, but what happens when ESPN's parent Disney launches its own streaming service in 2019?
"That's what's super interesting about putting Sports Center Live and Fantasy Football Live on Twitter because if Disney is going to offer something and ESPN already has their stand alone app, what are you doing?" said Flynn. "I agree that maybe longevity is brought into question, but Disney has the time and resources to experiment."
Playing content in various spaces might offer media companies more of an opportunity to diversify and increase ratings, said Flynn.
"I wouldn't say TV is dead at all," she said. "We obviously watch it. But its smart to try to boost the ratings by slowly diversifying it out."
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/twitter-doubles-down-on-video).
Waymo's self-driving taxis have been in the spotlight for both negative and positive reasons. This week, the automated ride-hailing taxis went viral after a San Francisco woman gave birth inside a Waymo taxi while on her way to the hospital. A Waymo spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed the unusual delivery. It said the company's rider support team detected unusual activity inside the vehicle and alerted 911. The taxi arrived safely at the hospital before emergency services. Waymo's popularity is growing despite heightened scrutiny following an illegal U-turn and the death of a San Francisco cat. The company, owned by Alphabet, says it is proud to serve riders of all ages.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
The end of 2025 is almost upon us. And it’s time to unpack Spotify Wrapped. On Wednesday, the music streaming giant delivered its annual recap — giving its hundreds of millions of users worldwide a look at the top songs, artists, podcasts and other audio they listened to over the past year. Spotify isn’t the only platform to roll out a yearly glimpse of data collected from consumers’ online lives. But since its launch about a decade ago, Wrapped has become one of the most anticipated. And Spotify is billing the 2025 edition to be the biggest yet, with a host of new features it hopes may also address some disappointments users had last year.
Elon Musk’s X unveiled a feature that lets users see where an account is based. Online sleuths and experts quickly found that many popular accounts, often posting in support of the U.S. MAGA movement with thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers, are based outside the U.S. This raises concerns about foreign influence in U.S. politics.
