The National Football League on Tuesday confirmed a partnership with Twitter in which the microblogging platform will serve as the exclusive over-the-top broadcast partner of Thursday Night Football.

The NFL said Twitter will offer 10 Thursday Night Football games during the 2016 regular season.

The games will stream live, free of charge to both registered and non-registered Twitter users on mobile phones, tablets, PCs and connected televisions. In addition to the game, the partnership is said to include in-game highlights as well as per-game Periscope broadcasts from teams and players.

The partnership allows the NFL to round out its tri-cast distribution model as games will also air simultaneously on NBC / CBS (broadcast), the NFL Network (cable) and Twitter (digital). For Twitter, it's another opportunity for the company to boost its user count - something it's struggled with for a while now.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said there is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during games and tapping into that audience, in addition to viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season.

According to Re/code, Twitter somehow beat out other suitors including Amazon and Verizon for the rights to stream Thursday night games globally. People familiar with the matter told the publication Twitter paid less than $10 million for the 10-game package while bids from rivals reportedly topped $15 million.

Image courtesy Josh Hallett, Flickr