Back in 2015, the NFL used Yahoo! as its guinea pig to begin testing the waters of digital streaming for its Thursday Night Football brand. The global net broadcast of the Bills and Jaguars game in London drew an audience of over 15 million people around the world.
The league used that as a launching pad in order to reach a one-year agreement with Twitter to stream all 10 of its Thursday Night Football games during the 2016 season, a deal that was worth $10 million. The NFL and Twitter were both satisfied with this partnership, but it will not continue through the 2017 season.