ITV is allowing viewers to share near-live highlights of the World Cup football in Brazil using the Grabyo social video platform. Grabyo will also support global sharing of highlights from the Wimbledon tennis championships. The World Cup still attracts an enormous global television audience but coverage will be accessible on more screens than ever before.
Live match coverage from ITV will be complemented with real-time video highlights, which can be discovered on Twitter and Facebook and viewed immediately in a real-time gallery on the ITV.com web site.
The video highlights will cover key moments from 34 matches, as well as post-match commentary, culminating with the final of the FIFA World Cup.
The clip sharing service is being offered in partnership with Grabyo, a startup company that specialises in real-time video sharing. ITV is offering brands the opportunity to sponsor the clips.
“We’ve been working with sports formats for the last six months but we always knew that the World Cup would be the ultimate real-time format,” said Grabyo chief executive Gareth Capon. He joined Grabyo from Sky, where he led strategy and product development for its mobile services.
“As a real-time, bite-size format that is optimised for viewing on mobile devices, short-form live video is highly appealing to social media users. We’re expecting World Cup clips to drive very significant organic reach on their own but it will be fascinating to see how this is extended using promotional tools such as Twitter Amplify.”
Ollie Irish, who is executive producer for ITV Sport, said: “The partnership will allow us to enhance the viewer experience and drive conversation around this major TV event as well as offer compelling opportunities for our clients to connect with consumers as all the action unfolds.”
ITV says it “aims to deliver an exceptional multiscreen World Cup experience to viewers this summer”. Many online viewers reported problems during the opening game of the tournament. In the middle of the match featuring Brazil they were presented with a caption saying: “A technical problem means the video is not available. Please try again later.” ITV said this was due to an “unprecedented number of users”.
Fans took to twitter to throw rocks, as did rioters in Rio, who attacked the ITV commentary box, although they were protesting about the World Cup rather than the quality of the coverage.
ITV shares coverage of the World Cup with the BBC in the United Kingdom. The BBC covered the first England game while ITV will have the next two. Both broadcasters will cover the final.
The BBC will be offering multiplatform coverage of the World Cup, across radio, television, connected televisions, computers, tablets and smartphones. Live coverage of BBC games online will include alternative commentaries. There will be catchup coverage and a chance to replay games including the 1996 final.
While the World Cup remains a major television event, attracting a global audience, it will be more accessible than ever across a range of connected screens.
Grabyo recently announced that it will also be helping to offer near-live highlights of the Wimbledon tennis championships. The All England Lawn Tennis Club will enable sharing of clips on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube. Grabyo says it will be the first time a major sports rights holder has delivered real-time video highlights to a global audience across multiple social platforms.