Twitter

The deal is part of Twitter’s “Amplify” program, which lets TV broadcasters show ad-supported video clips in users’ Twitter feeds as the users discuss what they are watching on TV in real time. Other partners include The Weather Channel, the National Basketball Association, Warner Music and CBS.

Twitter Alerts is an opt-in service that will push out alerts to mobile devices with information from credible organizations during emergencies and national disasters.

During Tuesday’s two-hour documentary College $ports: #missionormoney, which explored the multi-billion dollar industry of big-time college sports, the show’s hashtag trended No. 1 in the Raleigh market and No. 6 nationally on the social network.

The NFL is the latest to join Twitter’s TV ad platform Amplify. The deal marks the biggest sports-related commitment to date. It will allow broadcasters to show video clips and ads through tweets that are coordinated with what’s being shown on television.

Twitter has a ways to go before it can really crack big TV budgets. It has great traction among the media and plugged-in social and tech scenes, but it still has work to do in convincing broadcasters and big brands that it can really make a difference. That’s why it was eager to trumpet its new deal with CBS. The pair plan to push content out across the social network to help drive audience engagement and tune-in around TV content, but also to unlock opportunities for brands in the process.

HBO’s popular drama that shows the day-to-day grind of a cable news network used — fictionally, of course — innovative social media tool Topsy to help break news about Genoa, the show’s season-long backstory that was likely based around CNN’s explosive report on the military’s alleged use of poison gas.

Twitter added its biggest partner in CBS to its Amplify advertising program Monday. The network joins ESPN, AT&T and Ford Motor Co. to use the advertising service that sends out short messages on the social network. Twitter and CBS gave an example of an ad called “60 Minutes in 60 Seconds,” which promotes the network’s news magazine.

The social network, gearing up for its IPO, understands that it could generate revenue by targeting the TV advertising industry and has recently been courting networks and advertisers as it rolls out more marketing products. One of those solutions is Amplify, which is currently being used by ESPN and BBC America. Amplify lets networks post short video replays on Twitter in near-real time.

Twitter is not just about smartphones, tablets and PCs. The social network is also emerging as an important player in another medium: television. In fact, Topeka Capital’s Victor Anthony sees Twitter, which is gearing up for its public trading debut, cashing in on what he said “could potentially be multi-billion-dollar opportunities for Twitter longer-term.”

When Twitter started seven years ago as an obscure medium for geeks, critics dismissed it as an exercise in narcissism. Now, Twitter is taking the next critical step in its evolution — selling stock to the public. It promises to be the most hyped and scrutinized initial public offerings since Facebook’s Wall Street debut in May 2012.

The company used a tweet to intrigue its more than 200 million users and a flock of potential investors with its long-awaited plans to pursue an initial public offering of stock. Twitter isn’t baring everything about its business just yet because it’s taking advantage of federal legislation passed last year that allows companies with less than $1 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year to keep its IPO documents under seal the final few weeks before a price is set on the stock offering.

As a Twitter dabbler, I’ve put together a short list of TV News Tweeters Worth Following — nothing too avant garde but a sampling of tweeters from different segments of the industry, enough to help those of us sort of late to the game catch up.

Google’s got an ad exchange. So does Facebook. Twitter is said to be working on one too. But in the meantime, the company has just purchased MoPub, a burgeoning mobile ad exchange business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Twitter has acquired Trendrr, a company that tracks and analyzes conversation about TV shows on Twitter and other social media sites like Facebook, according to a blog post by Trendrr founder Mark Ghuneim.

Telemundo will integrate Vine, the Twitter app that allows users to create short videos, into its broadcast of the Premios Tu Mundo Awards Aug. 15. The Spanish-language network will unveil the winner of one award through a Vine video, which must be 6 seconds or shorter, during the second annual show, which serves as an appreciation of Latino pop culture.

By analyzing minute-to-minute trends in Nielsen’s live TV ratings and tweets for 221 broadcast primetime program episodes using Nielsen’s SocialGuide, the study found that live TV ratings had a meaningful impact in related tweets among 48 percent of the episodes sampled. The results also showed that the volume of tweets caused significant changes in live TV ratings among 29% of the episodes.

Audience measurement specialist Kantar Media has teamed up with Twitter to develop a new tools for TV planning and analytics in the UK. Under the alliance, both the firms will work together to provide detailed analytics data for UK broadcasters and media agencies.

My challenge to the engineers who are helping broadcast countless hours of live news each week: Sign up and tweet at least one message a day. Let this community know how your latest ENG gizmo is working out for you. Maybe you just bought some new specialty, point-of-view cameras that you want to tell us about. Let us know that your innovative minds are still churning out new ideas.

Twitter has expanded a service that lets advertisers direct promotions to viewers who tweet about shows they’re watching on television. The ad-targeting service, first introduced in May for a limited number of marketers, is now available to all those running national campaigns in the U.S.

The Associated Press, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Women’s Wear Daily and Slate have given sponsored social content a whirl in the interest of scratching up new revenue. Josh Sternberg: “It makes sense. With millions of followers, Twitter is a powerful distribution platform for them. Every little bit helps. The risk, of course, is user backlash.”

You may find more promos for new fall TV shows online these days than you will on your TV set. With the rise in social-media has come an intensification of TV-network efforts to inject their new programs into the pop-culture conversation. The new season is weeks away, with many of the broadcast networks not launching fall series until mid-to-late September, or even October. However, on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook, the freshman series of autumn are already striving to be seen and heard.

Disney’s Anne Sweeney and TV producer I. Marlene King talk about how the online conversation is transforming the creative process.

The popular social network has developed a new ad platform that analyzes tweets during a particular TV show and gives advertisers analytics to continue their campaign on Twitter.

Ever forget to record a TV show and wish there was another way to do it? Brazil’s largest satellite provider is testing a way for subscribers to record shows via Twitter.

Fox and Twitter have entered into a partnership to promote the broadcaster’s programs and allow advertisers a way to reach TV audiences as they discuss the shows on the social network.

NEW YORK (AP) — Putting a new test to the adage that brevity is the soul of wit, Comedy Central is partnering with Twitter for a comedy festival played out […]

Tweets sent Saturday afternoon from the 60 Minutes and 48 Hours Twitter handles saying their accounts were compromised are correct, the network said. The tweets said the network is working with Twitter to investigate. On Saturday night both accounts were suspended and inaccessible.

The microblogging site has partnered with BBC America to offer what the network trumpets as the first “in-tweet branded video synced to entertainment TV series,” according to a tweet sent Thursday evening.

Twitter Inc. is close to reaching partnerships with television networks that would bring more high-quality video content and advertising to the social site, according to people familiar with the matter. The San Francisco-based company has held talks with Viacom about hosting TV clips on its site and selling ads alongside them, said two of the people, who asked not to be named. Twitter has also discussed a content partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal, said two of the people.

Now that Kristen Bell, Rob Thomas, and the entire Veronica Mars universe have learned just what a mobilized fan base can do for a TV franchise, are we looking at the gestational period of a new world order of post-television crowdsourcing? This reinforces Nielsen’s recent findings of the symbiotic relationship between television and Twitter. Clearly, television resonates with fans well beyond cancellation; the media life of a program can last well beyond its broadcast life.

A new Nielsen-SocialGuide study shows that for 18-34 year olds, an 8.5% increase in Twitter volume corresponds to a 1% increase in TV ratings for premiere episodes, and a 4.2% increase in Twitter volume corresponds with a 1% increase in ratings for midseason episodes.

Social media’s promise and promotion to drive viewers to TV programs may be yielding low results. When people were asked whether they watched a TV show or movie because of buzz on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, 67% said “no” and 19% said “yes.”

The fact that there are companies — not a company, but companies — that specialize in monitoring social media chatter about television should tell you something about the dominance of traditional television in our culture. After consulting with several digital research specialists, it turns out that television is the only category that has specialized social media tracking services just for a single industry.