Twitter has announced it’s acquiring live-TV clipping service SnappyTV, a platform used by broadcasters and rights-holders to edit and distribute snippets of live TV across the social sphere shortly after they’re first aired.
Launched in 2010, San Francisco-based SnappyTV has been been partnering with the likes of FOX Sports, NBC Sports, CBS, HBO, and NBA. It basically lets broadcasters distribute near real-time video clips across the Web and social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook. For example, if you were to follow the NBA Twitter account, you may see something like this, or this on Facebook:
The deal makes absolute sense for Twitter (and SnappyTV), given its evolution as a platform for broadcasters.
Twitter & TV
Back in September, news emerged that the US National Football League (NFL) was partnering with Twitter to bring video highlights directly to the platform, viewable on PCs and mobile devices, with users able to access a packaged, NFL programming schedule directly on Twitter, including in-game highlights. This deal represented part of the Twitter Amplify Program, which launched last May with more than a dozen partners, including Bloomberg, Major League Baseball, Time, VEVO and Warner Music.
In late 2012, Twitter and Nielsen launched the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating, which was touted as the first social measurement of TV popularity. And in a separate report a year later, Nielsen suggested that tweets can lead to a “significant increase” in viewership 29 percent of the time. Viewers take to Twitter like moths to lightbulbs during big events, so the Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, and other televisual occasions typically lead to tweet-spikes. And while people are on there they also like to enjoy replays of spectacles they’ve just witnessed.
Twitter notes in today’s announcement:
“As we continue to invest in video, it’s important for us to provide tools that make it easy for TV broadcasters, businesses, and event producers to share high-quality videos.”
SnappyTV’s platform was already used by major online players to share both organically across social, and via Twitter’s Amplify program. But does this deal mean that it is now closing off to other social platforms, such as Facebook? Apparently not. SnappyTV suggests things will remain very much open to other platforms:
“With Twitter we will continue our commitment to maintaining an open platform for social broadcasting of live events, across a variety of digital platforms. Joining Twitter will allow us to provide an even better product and bring the platform to more content owners and event organizers throughout the world. We will be able to further our goal of empowering people to share the world’s best moments.”
We’ve reached out to Twitter and SnappyTV to seek clarification on this point, and will update when we hear back.
Elsewhere, London-based startup Grabyo operates in a similar space to SnappyTV, and has been ramping up its media partnerships in recent times. Just a couple of days after it revealed it was teaming up with the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to bring near-live highlights to Wimbledon fans around the world across Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and more, it inked a deal with British broadcaster ITV for the World Cup.
Yes, Twitter and TV very much go hand-in-hand these days.
➤ SnappyTV is joining the flock
Feature Image Credit – Shutterstock
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