Jordan O'BrienSnapchat has been trying to diversify its business in recent months, but soon the company could take a completely different approach – launching a TV service to take on the likes of Netflix and Amazon. Such a service could be known as ‘Snap TV’, with content deals reportedly having already been struck between Snap Inc, NBC Universal, Discovery, ESPN and Vice Media.
The reports of Snap TV were first brought up from The Wall Street Journal, which claims that the company has already secured deals for original shows from a number of production companies and news outlets. Rather than being a specific streaming service, however, Snap TV will supposedly be an addition to the ‘Stories’ section of the Snapchat app.
Unlike Netflix and Amazon Video, Snapchat will be vying for the short-attention span of millennials. That’s why the shows on its platform are likely to only run for a few minutes per episode. In fact, many of the shows targeted for the platform will supposedly include spin-offs of popular TV shows such as House Hunters and Chopped.
Despite the short run time of the TV shows, Snap TV could still present a threat to the bigger streaming services. That’s because the variety of content will include everything from reality TV to scripted dramas. Daily news shows, horror, documentaries and animated series could also be part of the offering. All these TV shows will supposedly be available on a catch-up service, allowing users to binge-watch series all in one go.
It’s not just Netflix and Amazon that could lose out from the launch of Snap TV. YouTube will also be a big competitor, with its YouTube Red service already offering original programming specifically targeted at millennials.
Snap TV will reportedly have a different monetisation strategy to YouTube, Netflix and Amazon, however. That’s because the service will supposedly be ad-supported, with Snapchat sharing revenue with its media partners rather than paying for the shows outright. The split is thought to be around 50:50 for original programming.