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Musk’s X Unveils Video Shows With Don Lemon, Tulsi Gabbard
(Bloomberg) -- X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, announced a slate of new video shows, including a partnership with former CNN anchor Don Lemon.
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Lemon will host a 30-minute show on X called “The Don Lemon Show,” airing three times a week “exclusively first” on the platform.
X will also distribute new shows from Jim Rome, the sports-radio commentator and former ESPN star, and Tulsi Gabbard, a former US representative and presidential candidate. Rome’s show will “stream exclusively on X, five days a week,” the company posted. Gabbard will distribute “an exclusive series of documentary style videos,” the company wrote.
San Francisco-based X didn’t share financial details. The partnerships are aimed at adding legitimacy to X’s renewed push into video, which has been a focus of owner Elon Musk. High-quality video content could also offer X more lucrative advertising opportunities. As of last month, ad revenue was on track to notch a significant slump in 2023, in part because of brands’ concerns about changes to X’s content-moderation policies.
Musk has spoken several times about his interest in making X more competitive with Google’s YouTube, the global leader in online video. Historically, X has been known as a text-based platform where people go to post their opinions and share news links, so adding exclusive videos from high-profile individuals is a step toward changing that reputation. Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host, moved some of his video content to X last year — though he has since launched his own separate subscription-based media company.
This isn’t the first time the social network has tried to push into professional video. The company made live video a major priority in 2016 and 2017, and even signed a deal with the NFL to stream Thursday Night Football games. Those efforts eventually fizzled as Twitter struggled to retain rights for must-see video content, which are typically expensive.
(Updates with history about Tucker Carlson, NFL in paragraphs five and six.)
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