App lets viewers legally share clips from their favorite TV shows

Whipclip boasts a catalog of popular TV shows and music videos, and enables users to legally share their favorite clips.

Short-form videos are effortlessly consumed, easily shareable on social media, and often have the potential to go viral. From Vine to Snapchat, we have seen various apps and tools offer ways to showcase these irrevocable — and often incredibly humorous — snippets. A platform now enables users to search for keywords and jump to the parts relevant to them, while another automatically highlights the most interesting parts of online videos. A new app called Whipclip is also catering to the short form video phenomenon: it boasts a catalog of popular TV shows and music videos, so users can easily — and legally — share their favorite clips.

Whipclip has already established dozens of partnerships with huge players including Comedy Central, ABC, CBS, VH1, Universal Music Group and Sony Music. This means that users have access to hugely popular content from the go. They can create two minute clips from snippets of live TV via the smartphone app, or browse an archive of published clips. Whipclip’s library is updated daily with the most recent broadcasts from its partners — they have already seen their clips used by International Business Times and USA Today.

Whipclip has raised over USD 40 million in Series C financing, and the iOS app launched earlier this year is giving users access to shows such as New Girl, Dancing with the Stars and Bob’s Burgers. An Android app is coming soon. The app essentially makes use of users’ social currency, helping television broadcasters gain extensive advertising while facilitating the legal sharing of viewers’ beloved content. Could this be applied specifically for the film or sports entertainment industries too?