On November 8th, BuzzFeed will join the rest of the United States by tuning into and commenting on the results for the 2016 presidential election. What’s notable about the viral media company’s election night coverage is the platform on which it will be disseminated. While BuzzFeed has a big presence on YouTube and has been paid by Facebook to post videos there, its November 8th live stream will be available through Twitter.
According to Recode, a deal between BuzzFeed and Twitter will result in the two companies splitting ad revenue generated by commercials that will play during the stream. Twitter, which like many other digital platforms is interested in the strong engagement generated by live video, will add BuzzFeed’s election coverage to its growing list of distributed events. It has also streamed the U.S. presidential debates and has broadcast Thursday Night Football games.
BuzzFeed’s justification for streaming on Twitter on November 8th is simple. “Everyone obsessed with politics will be on Twitter,” said Ben Smith, the media company’s Editor in Chief. “That’s where we’re all going to be on election night.” That’s a perfectly logical line of reasoning, and it should result in healthy numbers once the results begin to roll in.
