Twitter Inc made a smooth debut with its broadcast of a National Football League game on Thursday, attracting generally positive tweets throughout the matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets.
The CBS live feed marked the first time an NFL game had been broadcast on Twitter and the event quickly began to trend on the social media platform in the US.
Twitter users on computers and mobile devices were able to see tweet commentary running alongside a video feed that featured the same footage and commentary available on the television broadcast.
“In an Uber watching #TNF [Thursday Night Football] on Twitter,” app developer John Shahidi tweeted. “The future is cool so far.”
Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams tweeted: “Took 5-seconds watching #TNF on to know this is the wave of the future.”
Some viewers complained of persistent “buffering” and said that the Twitter video lagged behind the television broadcast. The video on the social-media platform at some points was operating on a delay of almost 30 seconds.
“The quality is better than my HD TV, but it being delayed stinks,” wrote Twitter user DCBlueStar. “I’ll stick to the TV, I reckon.”
Available on Twitter’s platform worldwide, Thursday’s game was the first of 10 that the microblogging site plans to stream as it seeks to make itself a force in mobile video with live events.
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