Why Thanksgiving NFL Game Isn’t Streaming on Twitter

Banking on family members wanting to do anything but talk to each other on Thanksgiving — especially given the decaying state of political discourse — seems like a much safer bet than any of the action Vegas is taking on the games.

The NFL agreed on a deal with Twitter in April to stream 10 Thursday Night Football games that were already being simulcast on both the NFL Network and either CBS or NBC.

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[...] this year’s Thanksgiving nightcap not only features what should be an intriguing matchup with two of the league’s best quarterbacks — Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger and Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck — it should also have a much larger potential audience than the other Thursday night broadcasts, which overlap with business hours, especially on the West Coast.

[...] the NFL can’t have it both ways — it can either put the game on Twitter, potentially depressing TV ratings, or it can restrict it to TV and miss what could be its best chance to show the potential of broadcasting on the social media service.

[...] with NFL ratings struggling this year as a weak slate of primetime games, national anthem protesting and an election that pretty much sucked the wind out of anything else wreaked havoc on what’s been the most predictably successful programming in television history, the NFL and its broadcast partners want to do whatever they can to ensure a Thanksgiving ratings boost.

[...] even if the NFL were to include the Thanksgiving night game with its Thursday Night Football package, it’s hard to imagine the league putting it on Twitter with its TV ratings flagging.