Macquarie analyst, Ben Schachter, is waiting for proof before suggesting investors step in and buy Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR). He thinks the NFL deal is clearly a positive because it gets high-profile content for a relatively small sum. It could help bring new MAUs to the site, but given TWTR's execution issues, he is going to wait to see if the NFL deal can meaningfully improve user metrics. The analyst maintained a Neutral rating and price target of $20.

Deal summary – TWTR will have the exclusive global OTT stream for 10 Thursday Night Football NFL games this year. The stream will be available without Twitter authentication on phones, tablets, PCs and connected TVs. The partnership also includes in-game highlights as well as pre-game periscope broadcasts from players and teams. Thursday Night Football will also simultaneously be broadcasted on CBS/NBC (depending on the week) and NFL Network. The terms of the deal have not been announced, but re/code is reporting that people familiar with the bidding said TWTR paid less than $10 million for the 10 game package while rival bids were over $15 million. In comparison, Yahoo paid $20 million for one 9:30AM EDT Sunday game in 2015, and CBS/NBC are paying a collective $450 million for the same 10 games. However, like the Yahoo broadcast last year, the Twitter feed will be a rebroadcast of CBS/NBC including ads, and TWTR will have the rights to sell only a small portion of the ads each game (around 15-20 of 70). TWTR IR has since tweeted that the expected costs of the deal were included in the guidance given on the 4Q earnings call.

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Shares of Twitter, Inc. closed at $17.05 yesterday.