Twitter, Bloomberg team up for streaming news channel

Twitter is launching a 24-hour streaming news channel it was announced on Sunday. Image: AFP/Leon Neal

Twitter is launching a 24-hour streaming news channel in partnership with the Bloomberg news agency, in a major expansion of its video operations.

Bloomberg Media chief executive Justin Smith confirmed the partnership late Sunday, retweeting a Wall Street Journal article referring to the tie-up.

“We’ll have a lot more to say about this exciting new partnership at Bloomberg Media’s NewFronts on Monday,” Smith tweeted, referring to a conference being held this week.

The Journal, which first reported the partnership, said Bloomberg will produce news exclusively for the online channel, separate from content produced for Bloomberg’s own television channel.

Bloomberg and Twitter declined to offer details on the deal pending an announcement later Monday.

The service, set to launch later this year, could help Twitter expand its user base, which has been growing at a slower pace than its social media rivals.

Twitter has been seeking to broaden its appeal beyond its core user base of celebrities, politicians and journalists, ramping up efforts in video and live sports, notably.

But in its quarterly results last week, Twitter reported a drop in revenue, despite boosting its monthly user base to 328 million, up 14 percent from a year ago.

Twitter, which has never reported a profit, said its net loss narrowed to $62 million from $80 million a year earlier.

Twitter already offers some live video news through a partnership with the streaming application Cheddar. It had rights last year to stream some National Football League games, but lost that for the upcoming season to Amazon. JB

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