Twitter Unveils ‘Comprehensive’ Partnership With CBS For Its In-Stream Video Program Amplify

Twitter and CBS just announced what Glenn Brown, who leads Twitter’s Amplify program, called “probably one of the most comprehensive partnerships that you will see coming out of Amplify.”

The program was first announced in May, allowing broadcasters to embed short video clips in their tweets in near real-time. Those clips are sponsored by an advertiser, who both promotes the tweet and runs a short pre-roll ad before the video.

Amplify’s launch partners included BBC America, Fox, and The Weather Channel, but signing CBS still sounds like a big win, particularly given the breadth of the content involved. CBS’ David Morris said the partnership will involve 20 of the company’s brands and 42 of its shows. Those include TV properties like CBS News and online properties like CNET and Gamespot. One of the most interesting concepts is a clip summarizing 60 Minutes, called “60 Minutes In 60 Seconds.”

Morris added that CBS normally doesn’t pursue joint ventures like this, but it wanted to do more to tap into “the world’s biggest and most exciting social platform,” particularly with Twitter’s ability to target and deliver content to consumers. He also said the partnership has attracted a lot of interest from advertisers, although it’s too soon to announce any of them.

The announcement came at the end of Twitter’s “Inside the Social Soundtrack” presentation at Advertising Week, where it highlighted many of its TV-related efforts. It also comes right after the Wall Street Journal published a story looking at Twitter’s efforts to woo TV networks in advance of its IPO. (The story mentions CBS, saying, “At this point, CBS Corp. hasn’t signed on to Amplify, but Twitter plays a starring role in CBS’s fall marketing efforts.”)

During the presentation, Brown showed some off some of the initial Amplify clips. Most of them were sports-related, but Brown noted that the program has expanded beyond sports (as the CBS examples show). He also said that Amplify advertisers have started using a new kind of pre-roll ad, one that’s only a few seconds long and therefore uniquely suited to the clip format and to mobile viewing.

To wrap things up, Twitter ad exec Matt Derella declared, “We want to be the preeminent complement to the live television experience” and he told Advertising Week attendees to “stay tuned” for more announcements in this area.