Twitter sold enough ads to support all the live video shows it was pitching

Advertisers are getting behind Twitter’s push into live video shows.

At its pitch to advertisers in May, Twitter showed off 16 different live video shows and features it planned to stream in 2017, including shows from pro sports leagues like Major League Baseball, news outlets like BuzzFeed and entertainment publishers like LiveNation. (Vox Media, which owns this site, also cut a deal with Twitter to create a show with The Verge.)

The majority of those shows, though, required an advertiser commitment to help foot the bill. Without the ad commitment, the shows wouldn’t have been produced.

Turns out advertisers were interested. Twitter secured ad commitments for all 16 shows, which means they’ve all been given the green light, according to a source familiar with the company.

It’s unknown how much video advertising Twitter and its partners sold for each show, but it was enough that they’ve chosen to stream them. (Ad packages for BuzzFeed’s new show ranged from $250,000 to $500,000, according to Ad Age.)

If Twitter was a TV network, this wouldn’t be a big deal — TV networks produce everything they pitch to advertisers, called the upfronts, as it refers to the upfront commitment advertisers make to the new slate of shows. The digital version is called the newfronts.

But digital companies often pitch stuff at the newfronts that never gets any backing, and thus never gets created. The fact that Twitter found buyers for all of its shows is not only uncommon, but a sign that the company’s focus on live video shows has attracted advertiser attention.

Now, Twitter just needs to prove users want to watch these kinds of shows.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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