SnappyTV launches 'VTweets' to make video more social

By Natan Edelsburg 

Remember SnappyTV, the exciting social TV startup that won the award at the first Social TV Summit? The San Francisco based company is growing their advanced editing tools, and it recently announced “VTweets” — the ability to bridge the live video you capture on their platform with tweets.

The two major features of VTweets include the ability to instantly select tweets to be highlighted at the appropriate moments within a SnappyTV playlist and the ability to embed playlists within web mobile and second screen environments.

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For example, in this screen grab of a video player (see it in action here), this tweet corresponds to the video that’s playing. Mouse-over other icons to see tweets that map to different places in the clip. Yet to exist, VPins, VTumbles, VInstagrams and more could all be a great way for SnappyTV to attempt to change the way TV networks share video content across the social web.

We spoke to Mike Dimond, SVP and GM for FOX Sports North and FOX Sports Wisconsin, one of their partners, to learn more about the product. “SnappyTV technology has provided FOX Sports North (@fsnorth) and FOX Sports Wisconsin (@fswisconsin) the opportunity to demonstrate our innovative approach to an ever-changing sports entertainment landscape, while also providing an interactive experience like no one else in the market,” Dimond explained to Lost Remote. “The technology allows our network to immediately deliver original content to viewers via multiple media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, text messages and QR codes.”

He went on to describe how their technology has allowed them to share content with viewers within seconds of it airing on TV. “We’ve used SnappyTV to distribute television and web stream highlights to viewers within seconds of content appearing live on the network and on the web,” Dimond described. “From high school sporting events, college hockey games, pre and postgame show special features, live press conferences and segments from a daily sports talk radio-TV show, our producers have snapped and shared hundreds of clips with sports fans near and far.”

With Twitter ramping up on their own video offerings it seems that scooping up this company could be a good move for the platform. SnappyTV’s biggest challenge, for the near future, will be access to TV content via partnerships. As Twitter launches strategic partnerships with NASCAR, ESPN and Pepsi, having SnappyTV’s real-time posting tools could literally give them the capabilities to have their big TV partners send TV content back to Twitter in real-time.

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