Twitter Inc., making a strategic push into online programming, won a deal to show Thursday night National Football League games online, a person familiar with the matter said.
The social-media company was said to be bidding against a slate of heavyweights including Verizon Communications, Yahoo Inc. and Amazon.com.
Facebook dropped out of the bidding last week, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions who asked not to be named because the talks were private.
The deal gives Twitter a key piece of content to attract mainstream users in its quest to make its service a go-to place to react to and discuss live events. The NFL, aware that a growing number of households are comfortable streaming video over the Internet, is using the digital rights for Thursday night games to reach so-called cord-cutters, as former cable-TV subscribers are known.
Twitter shares gained 2.4 percent to $17.50 in early trading.
