Twitter Amplify’s Formula to Tap Television Audience, Offering Real Time Information

Twitter’s India operations are all set to bring television into the social realm. With Twitter’s new application - Amplify, the microblogging site has announced bringing live television action on web which can be accessed, to what the Twitter blog calls, anytime and anywhere.

In a first, Twitter has tied up with Star Sports and Vodafone to reach out to their fans for Indian cricket team’s England tour. The partnership has started with sharing of premium television content to engage sports fans on Twitter’s real time information network.

The idea comes from the fact that over 90% of conversations on Twitter comes primarily from what its users see on television. Many of these discussions are reactive or analytical. With the introduction of Amplify, Twitter users are expected to receive timely update on news and sports.

According to a recent blogpost by Twitter’s India Market Director, Rishi Jaitley, Twitter Amplify program will let broadcasters publish content directly to Twitter, and then monetise that content with advertisers through sponsorship packages. Powered by the promoted Tweets, the program will amplify the reach of the video content distributed through the broadcasters’ or sponsors’ Twitter accounts. Jaitley also announces, happily, that this will link TV and Twitter more closely than ever and is now here in India.  On the other hand, for the television broadcasters, Twitter will serve as a platform to reach out to a large number of untapped social media audiences (about 241 million active users), beyond geographical boundaries into global markets.

Through Amplify, Twitter is clearly trying to bring television advertisers into social and mobile areas through its visual pitch. Needless to say, Cricket will be the key catch of this application. What also brought many users on Twitter for latest cricket score updates was a judicial intervention that stopped websites and mobile applications from broadcasting cricket scores live online. Star Sports had legally objected to telecast of cricket scores by websites stating that it was the exclusive domain and property of the broadcaster and that it was legal agreement.

Twitter Amplify was launched in 2013 globally with a series of partnerships with leading broadcasters such as BBC America, FOX, Fuse and the Weather Channel. The platform attracted significant attraction during the NBA league’s season in 2013. Amplify works in three easy steps and a new ‘Twitter Video Card’. Though the kind of advertising revenue it is likely to bring to Twitter is unclear, but it would be fairly significant if Amplify’s American experience is to be believed.

So, finally, Twitter is moving beyond 140 characters, and trust the American experience - the videos will play quite faster than the way you imagine.