Facebook has announced the acquisition of real-time sports content aggregator SportStream.

Facebook will be working more closely with media partners in order to offer aggregated entertainment content to its users within their newsfeed, based on keyword use and other expressed interests. They will then be able to give analytics back to the participating media brands. It looks like SportsStreams tech will be used beyond the realms of sports content too, from favourite television shows to breaking news, a blog from Facebook said.

This looks to be taking a direct shot at Twitter by bringing the content, along with the social conversations around entertainment programming, within the Facebook platform itself. Yesterday Facebook announced it would be introducing auto-play video ads, which will no doubt be used to ensure any advertisers get their required eyeballs.

Facebook had already partnered with the sports content startup before the buyout, which it said was in a bid to be part of the ‘water cooler’ conversations around sport.