The Elon Musk-owned app is also looking to make a bigger push into original content with X now describing itself as a "video first" platform. In this vein, the platform today announced new, exclusive content deals with TV identities Don Lemon, Tulsi Gabbard, and Jim Rome. Each will air their own shows in the app: "The Don Lemon Show" will air 30-min episodes three times a week, covering politics, culture, sports and entertainment.
Politics-focused docu-series and "broader content on X" from Tulsi Gabbard.
A sports-focused show hosted by Jim Rome, five days a week post-Super Bowl. The sports show is the first under a new content agreement for the app with Range Media Partners, whose latter stages could see it develop more celebrity-involving content to arrive on the service.
The new content deals are based on X's deal with Paris Hilton, which it announced last October, although more recently Hilton's company has cut back on its ad spend on X, which may have soured her relationship with Musk and Co.

One other major programming acquisition signed last May was with hot-button journalist Tucker Carlson. Since May, Carlson has been churning out a series of exclusive shows for the app, although their performance has been spotty at best. Still, millions of viewers tune into his interviews with left-of-center identities.
Carlson may also be wearing out his welcome by creating his own, competing subscription streaming service.

As such, X needs new stars to promote, as it works to get more people consuming more video content in the app.

Video is now X's focus and seems to be targeting those popular and controversy-driven figures, under its new "freedom of speech" based approach to ramp up that engagement and set a foundation for its video future.

Indeed, new contributors to the X website owned by Elon Musk are saying they are not beholden to any "editorial gestapo," and can say whatever they want in a free-for-all situation, then can tweet that crap on to millions via the app.

Which in an election year, could pose some challenges, especially when you also factor in the previous controversies related to these new contributors.

But Musk is optimistic that X might in several ways redefine the media environment, and inject fresh voices into relevant conversations as it brings alternative perspectives which might not otherwise receive airtime in "mainstream" media.

Will that work?

It's too early to predict just yet, but similar efforts in the past haven't boded so well for the app on this front.
Also when still called Twitter, it had tried sometimes to create and broadcast its original video content hoping that it eventually would make the audience more interactive with Twitter since the dual engagement of the watch would be merged into a single app.

Twitter inked an exclusive deal with MLB, NFL, and NBA back in 2016 to broadcast games in real-time within the app. It was all part of a bigger move to associate the rise of live TV tweeting with the content being transmitted. The company also developed some ideas to integrate live watching with live tweeting.
In 2017, Twitter also expanded its live content deals into a range of more niche sports hoping, it said, to become a vital connector for fans through the smaller leagues and events as opposed to paying big dollars for the major leagues.

Conceptually, that might have made Twitter the first home of any sports fandom and allowed it to organically evolve its treatment of the related coverage. But that never occurred, and all of these agreements ultimately expired without being renewed.

Twitter had kept up a variety of partnerships with services like E! News, Conde Nast, the WNBA, and others through 2022, but it's unclear where each stands under the app's new approach.

In short, Twitter had tried a number of different paths to make exclusive video content a bigger draw within the app. But for reasons that vary by the specific, it does appear that most viewers have chosen to keep their content consumption behaviors separate.

Perhaps now, with the age of social platforms increasingly becoming entertainment in themselves, it will be different.

Now that more people are watching video content on TikTok, YouTube, and IG as an alternative to traditional TV, as opposed to a supplementary element, maybe, with the right shows, X can now make this a reality, and bring more people into its new video transformation.

And while all these commentators are bespoke to their niches, if X can resonate its fans more onto the app, that may be a springboard to a greater change.

Once more, evidence isn't coming in for X, but also worth noting is viewership for Tucker Carlson's show is in decline. However, consumption patterns are shifting, and maybe now, X can make a bigger push, as it also looks to branch out into game-streaming, live-streaming, and more.

Actually, the new shows will be a kind of test case for X. If that brings millions of viewers and can ensure that those creators get paid, then others will be watching.

And with the app also wanting to give a platform to non-mainstream views, the interest from creators with big audiences will be too much if it works out.

Which can, in the future also present more opportunities to advertisers to reach large audiences through video advertisements on the app.