Sky to provide England autumn international video clips on Twitter

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB has partnered with electronics company Samsung to provide near-live video clips of England’s autumn international rugby union matches on social networking site Twitter.

Samsung is a sponsor of English rugby’s governing body the Rugby Football Union and will also support the Twitter initiative, with Sky’s move to show clips from the games in this manner standing as a UK first for the broadcaster.

Clips will be available via the @SkySportsRugby account and Twitter Amplify promotions will extend the reach of the campaign, while Sky Sports will retweet the clips to its 2.6 million followers.

The RFU last month extended a rights deal with Sky. Under the agreement, which will run for five years, from 2015-16 to 2019-20, Sky Sports became a top-level partner of the governing body with a range of other partnership rights.

David Fisher, head of futures at Sky Media, said: “We’re always looking to break ground with new ways to engage our clients and Sky Sports fans, and England’s internationals are the highlight of the autumn rugby calendar as part of Sky’s biggest-ever month of international rugby. We’ll also use Twitter Amplify will help us boost the reach of this innovative campaign even further.”

England hosts world champion New Zealand at Twickenham tomorrow (Saturday), with visits from South Africa, Samoa and Australia on the following three weekends.