Twitter video exec Kay Madati talks about cozying up to TV

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle get married.Getty

• Half of Twitter’s ad revenue comes from video and it has been a consistent bright spot in the company’s earnings.
• But Kay Madati, the head of content partnerships, told Business Insider he’s not trying to become “Netflix on Twitter.”
• Instead, he wants to build Twitter’s video business up from its current strategy of advertising against live events like the Royal Wedding on Sky or the World Cup.
• He wants to work with TV to create “always-on” shows.

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Kay Madati should be feeling the pressure.

The veteran media executive is Twitter’s head of content partnerships, and it’s his job to sell broadcasters like Sky and the BBC in the UK, and Disney/ESPN in the US, on the company’s video ad offering.

While most people might think of Twitter as a timeline of text-based updates, the company is increasingly making more of its advertising revenue by selling ads against snappy video content from professional broadcasters.

As a company, Twitter is especially focused on live, newsy events, such as the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Wimbledon, and the World Cup.

“Part of what differentiates us from the competition is that I’m not Netflix on Twitter,” Madati told Business Insider. “We’re clear on how content needs to execute. It’s not about taking a linear TV production and plopping it onto Twitter, that doesn’t work. It’s not how people use the platform, so it’s mostly about …

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