Twitter is testing new ‘trending TV show banner’ on its iOS app

It looks like Twitter is getting even more cozy with the television industry. Some users are reporting that the company is testing a new “trending TV show” banner along the top of a user’s timeline screen.

Twitter’s interest in television — specifically live TV — is based on its ability to boost the number of people sending and reading tweets while they watch shows, as VentureBeat has previously reported. It also gives the social network an important opportunity to carve a slice out of the $66 billion annual TV advertising industry.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the new trending TV banner highlights a show that’s trending currently on the service; the banner includes the number of tweets being sent out about the show, an image of the show itself, and when/where it aired. These new banners were first spotted by Twitter user Anthony Geranio (@asg), who shared screenshots of the feature via his Twitter account yesterday. The new TV banners only appear on Twitter’s iOS app and not on the main Twitter website, Geranio told TechCrunch. He said the banner also stays visible as you scroll through your timeline.

This isn’t the first time Twitter has added new features or services to better align itself with television viewing. The social network recently opened up its new TV ad targeting platform to more clients. And previously the company has forged second-screen advertising deals with media companies like Viacom and has acquired companies like Bluefin Labs to better analyze the data it collects while people watch TV and tweet.

We’re reaching out to Twitter for more information about the new trending TV banners and will update this post with any new information.