In a move to broaden the visual capabilities of its service, Twitter has announced it has acquired real-time video sharing startup SnappyTV.

The service allows TV networks, cable channels and other content developers to edit and share video from TV shows on several digital platforms such as social networks and mobile devices.

Twitter said in a statement that in addition to investing into SnappyTV’s product and integrating the service into its own, the company also plans to maintain partners’ ability to post high-quality videos to other platforms.

"Our goal is to help publishers quickly share great moments from events so people can experience those moments as they happen," the micro-blogging platform said.

SnappyTV had previously assisted Twitter’s Amplify service to generate revenues by helping distribute programming such as sports highlights in users’ Twitter feeds, as well as adding short ads at the start of the clips.

SnappyTV products head David Yun said that joining Twitter will allow the company to offer an even better product and bring the platform to more content owners and event organisers throughout the world.

"With Twitter we will continue our commitment to maintaining an open platform for social broadcasting of live events, across a variety of digital platforms," Yun added.

"We will be able to further our goal of empowering people to share the world’s best moments."

In April, Twitter acquired two European social TV startups – France’s Mesagraph and UK’s SecondSync – as part of attempts to beef up its social TV offering.