Dive Brief:
- Snapchat and PBS have teamed up for two six-minute interactive documentaries that will run for 24 hours on the NowThis Discover channel, according to Variety. The documentaries are the first ever produced exclusively for the social media app.
- The PBS POV series is supported by American Documentary Inc. and will run without ads in the second half of a regular NowThis News edition.
- According to POV, Snapchat’s main appeal was its 150 million daily users, a potentially huge new audience for PBS.
Dive Insight:
Snapchat has been on a roll recently in commanding content normally found on other platforms such as linear TV or YouTube, something its competitors, and particularly Twitter, might sweat as they, too, try to push more into live video offerings.
While Twitter has stronger branded deals in place at the moment, its user base is smaller than Snapchat's and stagnating, so more publishers may be turning to Snap in the future as a native video content channel.
“We are committed to making films in this format,” POV Digital executive producer Adnaan Wasey told Variety.
POV was founded in 1988 and has become active in digital media to expand its reach. Sarah Frank, the editor of NowThis, added that Snapchat is a unique platform that provides young storytellers with a direct path to an audience.
Snap Inc. is also trying to carve out a direct path through traditional TV, recently launching its first live activations for broadcasts like Fox's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
