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It was with little fanfare that Twitter opened a vacancy for their new Head of Live Sports recently.

But, for the soon to be incumbent, the very definition of how, where and why we watch the games we love is primed to be shaped in their image.

The power grab has begun.

They will not be alone. Just as Europe’s largest football teams make their final preparations ahead of another season, the great and good of Silicon Valley are jostling for position over the rights for who can broadcast the sporting giants of our time to the eyes of the world.

First they came for music, then they came for film and TV. Is it any wonder that live sport is next?

(Image: Internet Unknown) (Image: PA)

The global tech elite deal in the business of ubiquity. What was once digital is now weaved into the fabric of our daily lives. We communicate through Facebook and read news through Twitter. Google will determine the future of transport and healthcare.

Amazon, bolstered by the £13.7bn purchase of Whole Foods , is where we will shop one way or another.

Live sport, by and large, has yet to surrender to the inevitable. As one of the few pillars against which traditional broadcasters have been able to lean as ratings crumble against the tide of Netflix , the social media giants have so far positioned themselves for the second-screeners — a generation of supporters and fans for whom the action on the pitch or court is only part of the experience.

Watch the goal, tweet about it, make a bet, record a video and double the rush of dopamine as the notifications roll in.

However, in this current state of flux, nobody is winning.

In 2016, ESPN were losing up to 10,000 US subscribers every day, with fans turning increasingly to digital streaming services rather than pay ever more extortionate monthly bills.

(Image: Getty)

Sky Sports have surrendered part of their monopoly for top-level football to BT, who themselves are paying an additional £100m-a-season for Champions League rights since renewing their deal in March. A gamble, perhaps, for a company who saw £8billion wiped off their market value following an Italian accounting scandal in March.

Equally, clubs and leagues are looking for change to better serve their digitally-savvy supporters.

The ATP World Tour have sold their rights to Amazon, rather than Sky and, conversely to their competitors, the NBA have moved to actively encourage fans to share clips and highlights of their games, democratising the sport, increasing its popularity with a social media audience and, in turn, creating new revenue streams across a global audience through leveraging data, e-commerce and so on.

(Image: REUTERS)

The PGA of America’s chief commercial officer Jeff Price last month explained his vision for the sport’s future after announcing that the USPGA would not be appearing on Sky despite their new dedicated golf channel.

“Broad distribution, multi-platform distribution is the key objective for us,” he said.

“I’m not in a position yet to share all the details but we want the ability to engage golf fans of all ages across all platforms.” It’s Zuckerberg talk.

While the biggest jewel in the crown for British sports rights, Premier League football, is looking open to new markets after a quarter of a century of Sky plus one.

The league’s executive chairman, Richard Scudamore , effectively issued a ‘come and get me’ plea’ to the giants of US tech.

(Image: REUTERS/Toby Melville)

“We envisage anybody, really, being able to come along and bid for those rights,” he said on Monday this week.

“We would need some distribution criteria and to make sure it was readily available across platforms and everything else, but as long as it was widely available and distributed properly, we wouldn’t rule those out.”

It may not come in the next round of tender for the Premier League, but rumours are already circulating across the Atlantic for who will be best placed to purchase rights when the USA’s major sports leagues go out to market again in the early and mid 2020s.

Amazon have already cherry-picked streaming rights for 10 Thursday Night Football games from the NFL , for which advertisers will be expected to pay in the millions for individual packages, according to Reuters.

(Image: USA Today Sports)

The UFC , whose seven-year partnership with FOX ends in 2018, could yet prove an interesting test case. A growing sport with increasing revenues and huge potential for even greater mainstream penetration internationally, the question may soon be whether Amazon, Netflix et al purchase the rights, but why wouldn’t they?

As huge social and digital platforms move from curation to creation, it leaves not only broadcasters but all traditional media players in a position where standing still is no longer an option.

A diversified model for how we consume sport is a good thing for fans who want an increasingly tailored-experience when following their favourite players and teams.

The revolution is coming, whether it is televised remains to be seen.