Twitter Inc. has signed an agreement with Bloomberg L.P. to stream the forthcoming U.S. presidential and vice presidential debates, its latest foray into becoming an online live streaming video service.

Under the deal, Twitter will stream Bloomberg live broadcasts starting Monday, Sept. 26, with the stream also including special Bloomberg Politics programming thirty minutes before and after each debate.

According to reports, the two companies will share revenue from ads delivered during the pre and post-debate coverage. The format of the coverage is said to be similar to that used by Twitter when it showed its first National Football League (NFL) Football game last Thursday, attracting a highly respectable 2.3 million viewers.

“We are thrilled to extend our partnership with Twitter to include our coverage of the U.S. presidential debates during this unprecedented and remarkable U.S. election,” Bloomberg Media Chief Executive Officer Justin B. Smith said in a statement. “Bloomberg’s non-partisan political coverage stands out from the crowd for its independence and quality. By leveraging the power of Twitter’s enormous real-time platform for reaction and analysis, this partnership will provide viewers the opportunity to watch and interact with the news coming from this fall’s debates as they happen live on smartphones, computers and TVs.”

The dates of the streams are:

• Monday, Sept. 26: first presidential debate
• Tuesday, Oct. 4: vice presidential debate
• Sunday, Oct. 9: second presidential debate
• Wednesday, Oct. 19: third presidential debate

Working?

While still early days, the news of the Bloomberg Twitter hookup appears to be a positive sign for Twitter in its efforts to transform itself into a live streaming site with added user commentary, and follows deals signed to host livestreams of games from the National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB).

Whether it is working or not as a way to entice more people to use Twitter is another matter. Ultimately the dice Twitter is throwing is that by offering livestreams more people will sign up to and use their core service, arresting their stagnant user growth.

An audience of 2.3 million for the NFL game is without question a positive start. With high interest in the Presidential debates this year given the highly contentious candidates running to become the leader of the free world, it’s quite conceivable that Twitter could attract an even higher audience.

Shares in Twitter were up slightly with news of the deal, closing at $18.49, up a half-percent over the previous day’s close.

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