Grabyo Adds Square, Vertical Video Capabilities

By Karen Fratti 

Real-time video platform Grabyo announced square and horizontal video this morning at the Hashtag Sports Festival in New York City. Grabyo is a video partner with Facebook and already works with leading broadcasters like Fox Sports, Sky, La Liga and Wimbledon.

The new video formats are obviously tailored for Snapchat and Instagram use. Gareth Capon, CEO at Grabyo says that:

There’s been growing interest in vertical video thanks to Snapchat but square video is also a very compelling format on mobile – it takes up way more space in the user’s social feed. These new video formats have created a real headache for content producers so we’ve introduced a smart, simple and fast process for pulling vertical and square clips from standard 16:9 video and posting them on social channels.

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The Grabyo Studio lets creators edit horizontal video into either the vertical or square format just by selecting the option. They can also make it so that the video can follow a ball, or a person, during a live feed. Capon continues:

Facebook users scrolling through their feed are more likely to engage with square video than horizontal video, which means broader distribution across the platform. So why wouldn’t rights owners and media companies want to use this format?

Especially media companies that are already Snapchat Discover partners or boosting their brand via posting video to Instagram. A recent Ooyala survey found that many media companies are still using horizontal video, when 45 percent of consumers aged 16-24 are watching video on their phones, and most likely in their Instagram or Snapchat feeds. Filling up the screen there just  leads to a better viewing experience for the user and makes it look like you know what you’re doing.

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