Twitter dissolves live video team in broader content shakeup

Selina Wang, Bloomberg News

$Twitter Inc. signage is displayed outside the company\'s headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 13, 2013. Twitter Inc.\'s market debut will be the most anticipated initial public offering since Facebook Inc. listed last year, and the microblogging service is making sure to avoid some of its rival\'s pitfalls.$

Twitter Inc. signage is displayed outside the company\'s headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 13, 2013. Twitter Inc.\'s market debut will be the most anticipated initial public offering since Facebook Inc. listed last year, and the microblogging service is making sure to avoid some of its rival\'s pitfalls. , Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Twitter Inc. (TWTR.N) has dissolved its live-video team and consolidated the unit into its content partnerships team, in a move the company said is part of a broader reorganization that will make it easier to put together future deals.

“Over the past year, our global content partnerships team has made significant progress in bringing the best selection of content to Twitter, helping our partners better extend, scale, market, and monetize,” the social-media company said Monday in a statement. “To further accelerate this positive momentum, we’re taking steps to streamline this organization to enable increased efficiency around the world and better align with our global strategy and vision.”

The changes come as video and live-streaming have become a more important part of Twitter’s push to widen its appeal among users and advertisers. The number of daily video views on Twitter has almost doubled in the past year, and the format has contributed more than half of ad revenue for the past two quarters. The company recently signed more than 30 deals with companies including Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N) and NBCUniversal to beef up its video offerings with more news, entertainment and sports.

As part of the reorganization, the global content partnerships team, led by Kay Madati, will be run by a regional management structure, rather than one organized by categories such as news and sports. Laura Froelich, who used to lead sports partnerships, will be the new head of U.S. partnerships. Peter Greenberger, who led Twitter’s global news partnerships, and Todd Swidler, who joined the company a year ago to head live video, are leaving the company. Variety reported the changes earlier Monday.

The move indicates that live streaming, a strategy that former Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto had emphasized as a driver for future growth, will be less of a focus as a standalone feature. Instead, San Francisco-based Twitter is folding it into the company’s broader video and content strategy.

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