ESPN to embed sports instant-replay videos in tweets
The sports network's college football unit is teaming with Ford and Twitter to bring clips of the college bowl games to a tweet near you.
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Before you know it, smartphone-wielding football referees will be able to review their calls and respond to nasty tweets about those calls all in one go.
ESPN is set to start embedding video streams of instant replays into its tweets, according to various reports. Through a partnership with Ford and Twitter, ESPN's college football account, @ESPNCFB, will begin the effort today, as the bowl games kick in, and continue it through January 15, one week past the end of the college football season, according to Adweek.
A Twitter rep told Adweek that the clips would be 30 seconds or less and would be preceded by a 5- to 8-second ad from Ford. Promoted tweets are also part of the plan, which would let ESPN and Ford tie the clips to relevant search terms and trending topics and get them in front of people who aren't followers of @ESPNCFB or Ford.
Adweek cited unnamed sources in reporting back in July that Twitter is in "serious talks" with Hollywood producers and network executives about launching several original in-stream video series on the microblogging site.
At the moment, we watch TV and tweet about it. If Twitter has its way, it seems, the TV part of that equation may eventually become redundant.