It's important to note that ESPN owns the broadcast rights to the aforementioned tennis tournament, so that's why Twitter wasn't able to stream matches live. Talking to the basketball and soccer leagues makes sense, but why would the company include Turner? Well, Turner has locked down the rights to NBA, MLB and NCAA Basketball Tournament games already in addition to its own eSports league. MLS games are typically regional broadcasts, but ESPN and FOX each show one or more games a week. Twitter's CFO Anthony Noto made the talks known in April, but now there's a sense of which leagues and networks the company is trying to work with.

As Recode notes, Twitter is limited to advertising as the primary revenue stream when it comes to any live video. Compare that with money networks like Turner or ESPN usually earn from cable and satellite companies in carriage fees. Those networks are unlikely to give up a ton of live coverage, so Twitter's push for basketball and soccer will probably be mostly that pre- and post-game content used to generate interest in the actual live broadcast through TV service or subscription. Yahoo is also getting its piece of the sports streaming pie, offering weekly NHL and daily MLB livestreams. It also streamed NFL action last season. Twitter did secure the rights for 10 Thursday Night NFL games this fall though, so we'll have to wait and see how this pans out.