Twitter has reached an agreement with the NFL to broadcast ten Thursday night matches for free during the 2016 regular season.

The social networking site beat off competition from the likes of Facebook, Amazon and Yahoo to win the rights.

"Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

"There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season."

The deal will also include in-game highlights as well as analysis before matches through the site's live streaming app, Periscope.