May 3 (Reuters) - Short-form video took center stage at

tech and social media companies' annual presentations to

advertisers, as platforms like Snap and Meta

look to capitalize on TikTok's political uncertainty in the U.S.

to take ad dollars from their rival.

The presentations in New York, known as the NewFronts, come

just a week after U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that

gives Chinese tech company ByteDance up to one year to divest

TikTok, or else the app will be banned over national security

concerns. TikTok has vowed to fight the legislation.

The short video platform announced new sports and

entertainment partnerships at its NewFront on Thursday evening,

including an agreement that broadcaster NBCUniversal will post

clips of this summer's Paris Olympics on TikTok.

TikTok is expected to generate $8.66 billion in U.S. ad

revenue this year according to an estimate from research firm

Emarketer. While it is a fraction of the size of Google and

Meta, TikTok kicked off the short-form video craze and prompted

rivals to build similar features.

"TikTok must show advertisers that it's business-as-normal,

even though it's anything but," Emarketer principal analyst

Jasmine Enberg said.

On Wednesday, Snap, which owns photo messaging app

Snapchat, said it would also partner with NBCUniversal to send

popular influencers to the games to film content. It will also

host clips of top concerts from events promoter Live Nation.

"We're having very productive conversations about how

Snapchat can help, because there is a lot of noise at the

moment," said Patrick Harris, Snap's president of Americas and

partnerships. "But we have our heads down and we're making sure

we're a dependable and viable platform."

The focus on professionally produced videos is designed to

attract brands wary of the downside of social media or

artificial intelligence (AI) generated content.

"Brands have to spend a little extra time really thinking

about the quality of environments, which is why these content

partnerships that are being spun up are so important," said

Robert Silver, head of media at digital marketing firm

Razorfish.

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta focused its NewFront on

Reels, its TikTok competitor that now accounts for half of the

time users spend on Instagram.

"Instagram Reels already stands to benefit from a TikTok

ban, and Meta wants to ensure that it can attract all the

potential displaced users and revenues it can," Emarketer's

Enberg said.

Google said on Monday that its own short-form video feature

called YouTube Shorts are increasingly being viewed on TV

screens in addition to phones.

Despite the uncertainty over TikTok's future, advertisers

say they intend to focus on the near-term and some plan to

continue advertising until it is no longer possible to do so.

"I think we need to put some blinders on and focus and try

to understand on what innovative capabilities are available for

advertisers," said Alex Stone, senior vice president of agency

partnerships at media buying firm Horizon Media, referring to

TikTok's NewFront.