Twitter adds live college football just a day after Facebook does the same

Twitter is adding college football to its growing live video slate just a day after Facebook made a similar move.

The dueling announcements are yet another sign of the growing competition between tech companies over the rights to live sports events as audiences begin to grow comfortable with watching TV on the internet.

Twitter has inked a deal with digital sports network Stadium to carry its 24-hour-a-day stream, which will feature a variety of college football games as well as various other live college sporting events and coverage. The stream will starts on Thursday, with the first college football game scheduled for September 2 between Alabama A&M and University of Alabama Birmingham.

The deal helps Twitter fulfill its promise to broadcast live shows 24 hours a day. Bloomberg already agreed to provide 24/7 news coverage. Now, Stadium will provide sports commentary and games.

On Wednesday, Facebook said it will broadcast 15 college football games exclusively this fall via Stadium, the same digital network that is partnering with Twitter. It's the latest in a series of content grabs both networks have made over the last year in the hopes to attract more user attention and advertising dollars.

Twitter and Facebook have been grabbing live sports rights in the past year. Both stream some Major League Baseball games, and Twitter streamed National Football League Thursday night games in the 2016 season. In 2017, those games will be streamed by Amazon.

Both Facebook and Twitter's partnerships are via Stadium, a new digital sports network that formed in May 2017 after 120 Sports, American Sports Network, and Campus Insiders merged. While Facebook and Twitter will be competing for eyeballs, Stadium said that its new deals are complementary and not competitive.

"Facebook will feature an exclusive package of Stadium-branded games that is not featured in the linear channel appearing on Twitter, and those games will be produced with a customized production philosophy specially-designed for the Facebook platform," Jason Coyle, Stadium CEO, wrote in an email.

"The content will not overlap, and we are confident that both will serve our respective partners well, while advancing the Stadium brand overall," he continued.

Twitter will host Stadium's 24/7 programming, which is also available for free on WatchStadium.com and on PlutoTV. The site will host several hundred live events over the year as well as original shows.

The studio shows include Inside the League, Campus Insiders, and The Rally, live at 4:00 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 6 p.m., 11 p.m., and 1 a.m. Monday to Friday. Twitter was already home to The Rally, a live sports highlight show that launched in September 2016. It's produced by 120 Sports, which is now a part of Stadium.

Stadium has plans to partner with other platforms, but declined to provide any specifics. Coyle said the company will announce additional partnerships over the coming weeks. Stadium also will launch Stadium Plus, a package for 500 exclusive live games, classic events, and Stadium TV re-airs and on-demand content for $4.99 per month.

Why watch on Twitter versus those other sites? For one, Twitter will have real-time conversation. Coyle said Twitter users will be able to influence what topics the company's editorial staff chooses to cover based on their live commenting.