Twitter is not quite ready for primetime.
For the past month, CEO Dick Costolo and his team have been pitching TV networks and ad execs on a new way to make money, called Amplify, that allows Twitter and its media partners to sell ads against snippets of shows or other video clips.
The celeb-studded microblogging service declined to detail the revenue split when it debuted the service in the spring, but the TV programmer gets 75 percent and Twitter takes 25 percent, several partners revealed to The Post.
With Amplify, the network posts a short video clip, which is sponsored by a brand, on Twitter. The network and Twitter each get a cut of the ad proceeds.
The money isn’t significant at this point, but the pressure is on Twitter to win over the TV business and prove it can turn a profit after its much-hyped IPO last week.
While the company is clearly looking to exploit the buzz around TV shows, Madison Avenue is proving to be a skeptical audience, according to ad execs who are wary of sharing ad dollars and clients.
“Why do I want to share my advertiser relationships with Twitter?” one programmer groused.
What’s more, Facebook has woken up to the blue bird blogger’s TV threat and is preparing an ad counterattack, according to sources.
Twitter claims it can put TV clips and content in front of a captive audience, thanks to its ability to track what people are tweeting about in real time, and serve them targeted ads.
It also has worked with Nielsen on a new metric — Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings — that is designed to measure all the activity and reach of conversations about shows.
But one ad exec said just because someone tweets about the NFL doesn’t mean that people who see it are going to tune in to that night’s game.
“Twitter’s Amplify program probably doesn’t account for a significant amount of dollars in absolute terms, but is strategically important as it helps position them as a complement to traditional media, at minimum,” said Brian Weiser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group.
“Perhaps most important, deeper relations between Twitter and TV networks help Twitter because networks are likely to be big advertisers on Twitter.”
Some of the believers include A&E Networks, BBC America and ESPN, which have signed on to Amplify.
The company, which is on track to generate about $500 million in ad revenue this year, is looking to make a mint off inserting itself into conversations around live events, sports and breaking news.
The company is about to unleash a flurry of announcements of new partnerships and potential enhancements, including a “curated” news stream targeted to the individual user, sources said.
Twitter declined to comment.