Twitter Inc., making a strategic push into online programming, won a deal to show Thursday night National Football League games online, a person familiar with the matter said.
The social-media company was said to be bidding against a slate of heavyweights including Verizon Communications, Yahoo Inc. and Amazon.com. Facebook dropped out of the bidding last week, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions who asked not to be named because the talks were private.
The deal gives Twitter a key piece of content to attract mainstream users in its quest to make its service a go-to place to react to and discuss live events.