Twitter has bought the rights to stream 10 games from NFL's Thursday Night Football online. The news was rumored earlier this morning, and confirmed by both the NFL in a press release and by Adam Bain, Twitter's COO. Bain said the deal would allow streaming of whole games, as well as pre- and post-game shows, and behind-the-scenes footage broadcast on Periscope. According to a report from Recode, Twitter beat both Amazon and Verizon in securing for the global rights to the games, with sources close to the bidding process claiming that the social media company paid less than $10 million for all 10 games.

Twitter will not be the only digital outlet to offer streaming for the games, though, and the company won't control all of the ads for the streams either. Earlier this year, the NFL sold the TV broadcast rights for the same games to CBS and NBC, and the two networks are allowed to stream the games to their paying cable subscribers. Recode points out that these two companies also own most of the digital ad inventory for the streams, and that the mobile rights to NFL games belong to Verizon.

All in all, it seems Twitter's purchase is more about attracting new users than creating new revenue streams. Bain notes that the deal "continues our strategy to build world's best daily connected audience that watches together & can talk w one another in real-time." However, there are still unanswered questions, primarily concerning how users will be able to access the streams, and how Twitter will present the content next to its own product.

This message was echoed in a press release from the NFL, with the league's commissioner Roger Goodell commenting, "There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season." Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey added, "This is about transforming the fan experience with football. People watch NFL games with Twitter today. Now they'll be able to watch right on Twitter Thursday nights."