Snap Launches More Scripted Shows as Social-Media Companies Push Original Content
October 10 2018 - 10:07AM
Dow Jones News
By Micah Maidenberg
Snap Inc. is getting deeper into the crowded scripted-show
market, teaming up with companies like Viacom and NBCUniversal on
original content.
The social-media company is launching its Snap Originals
initiative as it struggles to compete with Facebook Inc. and
Facebook's Instagram app, which has gained popularity in part by
adopting some of Snap's ideas. Instagram, meanwhile, is seeking to
stake out a dominant position in longer-form mobile video,
announcing in June it would create a new hub for that format called
IGTV.
Snap has struck deals to generate scripted shows in the past,
including a $100 million deal in 2017 with Time Warner Inc.'s
Turner cable channels and the Warner Bros. studio.
Several television and film producers have agreed to produce
Snap Originals.
Viacom committed to creating 10 new shows, according to Snap. It
also agreed to syndicate a minimum of 500 episodes of its networks'
shows to the Snapchat audience.
NBCUniversal developed one of the six shows included in the
initial Snap Originals slate, and also agreed to extend a a
content-production commitment with Snap through 2019. The
social-media company and NBCUniversal struck a deal in 2017 to team
up to produce content.
Snap Originals shows will offer episodes that last about five
minutes. Companies can purchase six-second ads within them.
"Over the last two years, our highly engaged and loyal audience
has helped to define what mobile content should look like --
vertical, hyper-visual and paced in a way that draws you in quickly
and makes you want to return," Nick Bell, vice president of content
at Snap, said in a statement.
The initial slate of Snap Originals includes "Endless Summer,"
which follows two online influencers living in Laguna Beach,
Calif., and "The Dead Girls Detective Agency," described by the
social-media company as a "darkly comedic supernatural soap opera."
Users will be able to watch the show via the Snapchat mobile
app.
Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 10, 2018 09:52 ET (13:52 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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