Grabyo, a television clip-sharing platform that informitv first featured in June 2013, has appointed the former product development director of Sky as its chief executive. The move is a major boost for the start-up company, which counts Sky Sports among its customers.
Grabyo aims to support broadcasters and brands by allowing users to share video clips across Twitter, Facebook, web sites and mobile apps, including sports highlights, reality television and breaking news.
Users can grab clips from a television or video feed using cloud-based editing tools and share them instantly online. The company says this can create real-time video inventory for sponsors and advertisers, helping them to extend sponsorship and advertising campaigns to a connected audience.
Gareth Capon, who led social television initiatives at Sky, including its mobile applications portfolio and investment in zeebox, has joined the London-based startup as its chief executive. He hopes to drive the expansion of the business as broadcasters engage with the opportunities around short-form real-time video.
He described this as a new format. “It is highly significant as its solves broadcasters’ strategic challenge of owning and monetising the social conversation around TV.”
“Distributing live TV clips to millions of viewers in real time, through multiple social media platforms and as a seamless experience on any device, is a challenging process,” he said. “There is a real opportunity to build new value from existing rights and to maximise sponsorship and digital advertising opportunities in the real time space.”
Founder Will Neale said the appointment will enable the company to accelerate the development of its real-time clip sharing platform. He said: “His decision to take on this role really demonstrates the potential in this new space.”