Snapchat is about to host more TV—kind of.
Cable giant Time Warner announced Monday that it inked a $100 million deal with the photo-sharing app to develop 10 new shows over the next two years. Episodes will range from 3 to 5 minutes in length, and will all be shot in the vertical format to mimic the quick-hit viewing experience users are used to.
It’s apparently a push by Time Warner to connect with younger audiences, but with the Wall Street Journal reporting that stars like Ellen DeGeneres and Samantha Bee could be part of the arrangement, will its brand fit in with the ever-evolving Snap? Companies like Daily Mail Celebrity, Vice, and Refinery 29 reign supreme on the app’s promoted stories page. In February, SNL released its first Snapchat story Boycott (which you can watch here if you’re reading on a phone), and later this year, both a James Corden series and Vice’s Hungry Hearts with Action Bronson are set to debut.
The cable giant will best be served by focusing on content from its HBO and Adult Swim-type properties, but no matter what, its huge portfolio is going to give Snapchat’s flow of original content a major boost. Right now, the app releases about one new episode a day from an original series. With this new deal, it’s hoping to release three new episodes from original series every day by the end of 2017. That’s a lot of tiny TV.
Time Warner will spend $100M on Snapchat original shows and ads https://t.co/LS7tzKbRFy pic.twitter.com/P4bRegGMd8
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) June 20, 2017
The deal also included a commitment from Time Warner to buy Snapchat ads for HBO, Turner, and Warner Bros.