Sky Sports is to Tweet clips from the UEFA Champions League almost as soon as they are broadcast.
The broadcaster is working with Grabyo, the real-time TV clip-sharing platform, to deliver the promoted Tweets that will also include clips of Sky Sports News. The clips will be promoted by NOW TV as part of a campaign to increase both awareness and engagement of live Champions League coverage on Sky Sports and NOW TV.
Sky’s over-the-top service offers a day pass for all six Sky Sports channels at £9.99 for a 24-hour period.
Included in the Tweets will be in-game clips, the best goals, build-up and post-match interviews that will be shared in real-time and promoted to football fans that are participating in a related conversation.
Sky is using Grabyo Studio, a cloud-based service that enables broadcasters to instantly grab, edit and share clips in real-time via an easy-to-use browser-based interface. Broadcasters can use the clip-sharing platform to drive social engagement as well as generate additional advertising and sponsorship revenues by offering brands an integrated cross-platform tool to own the conversation on social media.
The decision by Sky Sports, and NOW TV, to partner with Grabyo follows a successful trial using the Grabyo platform on Transfer Deadline Day in September. This pilot generated over 570,000 clip views within twelve hours and saw over 6,000 clips being re-shared across social networks with a total reach of over 7 million users
Dave Gibbs, Director of Sky Sports Digital Media, adds: “Grabyo Studio brings simplicity and speed to clip-sharing, making sure that we are first and own the social conversation around TV highlights as well as maximising the impact and reach of the promo clips we share.”
“This is so exciting – not only to be working with the most innovative pay-TV broadcaster in the UK and Ireland but also to be showcasing the Grabyo Studio capability for such a high profile format in the UK,” comments Grabyo founder Will Neale. “This is an exciting time for broadcasting and we’re delighted to be right at the epicentre of industry innovation. We’re confident that by focusing on building an end-to-end service focused on speed and simplicity, Grabyo will become the platform of choice for TV clip-sharing.”
The project will commence on Sky Sports’ live coverage of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. Sky will also be using Grabyo Studio to share ad-supported clips of Sky Sports News.