Twitter is Streaming the Conventions—and It Makes Perfect Sense

The 2016 election year has been completely insane, and we haven't even gotten to the "good stuff" yet. The biggest reason for this unusual election year is an equally unusual candidate—Donald Trump. Love him or hate him… well, odds are, it's one or the other. More than likely, the idea of Trump in office doesn't elicit a simple shoulder shrug and "meh" from you. Common reactions seem to fall more in the "he's going to make America great again" or "I'm moving to Canada if he's elected" categories.

Why? Well, he's one of those divisive figures who will gladly poke a hornet's nest in order to stir things up. He demands your response.

One of the primary tools he's used to accomplish such positive and negative popularity is social media. With nearly 10 million Twitter followers (approximately 2.5 million more than presumptive Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton), Donald Trump has made Twitter one of his most important platforms for staying in the public's eye, tweeting an average of 9 times a day. Whether he's firing shots at opponents or complaining about President Obama's perceived inefficiency, Trump's follower count just keeps rising, adding an average of 24,000 followers a day, according to Twitter Counter statistics.

Not only that, a quick look at his Twitter feed shows that he gets thousands of retweets and likes for every single tweet he sends out (not to mention crazy amounts of replies from people praising and bashing him). And it seems like you can find Trump in the top trending hashtags nearly every day.

With that in mind, the next few days of the Republican National Convention will be no different, if Twitter has anything to say about it.

Sure, this election year circus isn't exactly the best thing for the country. But it sure brings hefty TV ratings and internet search traffic. Twitter knows it and is trying to capitalize with the recent announcement that the platform is live streaming both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. And it makes perfect sense.

Twitter hasn't exactly been doing well as of late. In fact, some has gone as far to say it's dying. But it isn't going down without a fight. Back in April, Twitter won the rights to stream Thursday Night Football, a groundbreaking achievement. Since then, they've announced multiple other live streaming deals, showing a new commitment to making Twitter the place to go for trending live events.

Perhaps the smartest move the company has made? Live streaming the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. While you can watch coverage free over the air on stations like NBC or watch online with CNN and even Twitch, there's no doubt that droves of Twitter users will turn to the platform to laugh/cry/complain about all the convention shenanigans.

"Twitter is doubling down and providing a live stream of CBSN's convention coverage for free," industry watcher Eric Anthony of StreamingObserver.com told Motherboard. "This makes it more attractive than other streaming apps like Sling TV or PlayStation Vue, both of which require an account to watch. Not to mention, it lets you watch in a social sort of way."

How will it work? Based on what we sawduring Wimbledon, you go to a special Twitter page and view the stream in real time. If you're a Twitter member, you can tweet about what you're watching beside the video feed in the same window. A multifaceted, completely social convention experience.

"It will be interesting to see how the live streams hold up to large viewing numbers," Anthony said. "The RNC is a good test for the even bigger traffic the platform will get this coming NFL season."

Whether or not Twitter's new live streaming video plans will save the platform still remains to be seen. But one thing's for sure—it's an interesting way to watch and participate simultaneously in the convention coverage.