Dive Brief:
- Twitch, the Amazon-owned streaming video service best known for live gaming streams, is looking to get into original TV-like video content with a “choose your own adventure” element per Recode.
- The concept would take viewer comments into consideration as storylines evolve over each episode, Twitch COO Kevin Lin told Recode. Currently Twitch is looking for the right production partner for its concept.
- “We’d want to identify really progressive studios that are willing to take a gamble and not release something in a big dump like most [premium] digital platforms these days,” Lin told Recode. “[Someone who] will work with us and say, ‘week to week, we’re going to change this thing. We’re going to somehow make it a little more interactive.’”
Dive Insight:
TV-like content is a major trend right now on digital video platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and others. The basis for the strong interest is the ongoing phenomenon of cord cutting, especially among younger demographics coupled with dropping linear TV ratings. People are still watching TV content, but just not necessarily on network or cable TV or maybe not even on TV screens. In fact, paid TV just had its worst quarter ever for paid subscriptions.
Twitch’s gambit is the latest twist on TV-like content for a digital platform along with an element that digital can uniquely supply by allowing viewer comments actually drive the storytelling experience from week to week. It could be an interest point of differentiation if Twitch can make the experience seamless and gratifying enough for viewers. It also sounds well-suited for the platform's primary audience of gamers, who, by definition, are used to being able to influence the outcome of the content they engage with.
As more digital options become available, Marketers are rethinking video advertising budgets as a single strategy that involves channels from traditional linear TV to social media video ad formats. The more typical way marketers have seen video ad buying is distinct buckets that made a clear distinction between linear TV and digital platforms.
