ESPN plans to post sports-related highlight videos on Twitter in the coming year. Sports fans can expect clips from soccer matches leading up to the World Cup, college football and the X Games. The videos will be made available on Twitter’s site and mobile apps shortly after the live television broadcasts. The collaboration is part of a bigger movement by TV networks and the microblogger to discover new approaches to advertising revenue.

“The sports network plans to sell ads that will run inside the video clips, and marketing sponsors will commit to buying from Twitter a minimum value of ‘promoted’ — or paid — Twitter posts to circulate their pitches,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

“Twitter executives have been talking with many TV companies, including Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal and CBS Corp., about more ways to collaborate on online video that would be shown inside Twitter, with each side selling ads to accompany the videos, according to people familiar with the discussions.”

ESPN will promote its expanded partnership with Twitter at an event for advertisers today. The partnership began last year when ESPN agreed to feature fans’ tweets on telecasts and Twitter began experimenting with sharing college football video highlights. In addition to its 140-character text messages, Twitter now allows users to share photos, videos and expanded text in pop-ups.

“The closer ties spotlight the symbiotic business needs of Twitter and the television industry,” suggests the article. “For the TV networks, Twitter tie-ins provide new ways to make money beyond 30-second TV commercials likely to be skipped or ignored. Entertainment executives talk about ‘engagement’ — buzz and social-media comments around a show — nearly as often as they mention traditional TV ratings.”

According to Nielsen, 40 percent of U.S. smartphone users access social networks while watching TV.