ConnecTV said it will amp up its social TV capabilities with the acquisition of TweetTV, an analytics and TV guidance startup that helps viewers discover what’s trending on TV in real-time.
ConnecTV will stich those capabilities into its own social TV video network and a free mobile app that enables users to watch, clip and share TV “moments.” By tapping into a combined platform that meshes a database of TV-related keywords with Tweeting activities, users will have an easier time discovering and tuning into leading “social” shows, ConnecTV said.
The company added that TweetTV’s data tracking and viewer analytics will provide new tools for networks and brands that show where and why TV video clips and ads are shared across social media.
Users, for example, will have the ability to filter trending and guidance data by show, stars, genre, keyword and hash tags, and link that information to TV shows – then clip and share live, six-second snippets on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and even plain old email.
It’s rapidly become a sought-after feature for companies with social TV aspirations. Twitter, for example,recently acquired SnappyTV, a startup that uses a cloud-based platform to help broadcasters, programmers and other content providers share video clips via the Internet in near real-time.
“ConnecTV together with TweetTV creates the most powerful social experience for TV fans – a unique combination of TV guidance and social TV entertainment,” said ConnecTV co-founder and CEO Ian Aaron, in a statement.
“TweetTV is built for business partners – our suite of tools can be plugged into any connected TV platform, app or website to add a powerful socially-driven layer of intelligence and presentation,” added TweetTV founder Bradley Markham.
Austin, Texas-based TweetTV was founded in November 2011 and has raised roughly $750,000 in angel funding, according to Crunchbase data.
Separately, ConnecTV launched ClipADS, a feature that gives advertisers and their agencies a way to develop “bite-sized video ads” that can be distributed virally across social media sites.
