Snapchat Shows Are Game-Changing and The Future is Premium Mobile Video
Snapchat’s Discover section is unique. For the unfamiliar, Discover is made up of daily content produced by professional publishers (think CNN, ESPN, NatGeo, People, New York Times, etc.), exclusive to Snapchat. The content, just like Snaps themselves, is only available for 24 hours. But Snap, Inc. has a bigger vision for Discover: Snapchat Shows.
Before we dive in to Snapchat Shows, think about the video content you consume on mobile. Twitter is full of GIFs, Instagram is full of memes, Facebook is full of “viral” or political content, YouTube is full of garbage. Yes, you can find great video content on all of these platforms. But Snapchat is aiming to be the premiere hub for mobile video, and their approach is a truly unique one.
It was recently reported that Snapchat is looking for a head of brand integration to develop more branded Snapchat Shows. As we can see, Snapchat is going all-in on original content.
Discover itself has daily editions of interesting content. But “Shows” is what can truly set Snapchat apart.
As of now, there are over 30 Shows on Snapchat or in development for Snapchat. Here are some:
- The Bachelor: Watch Party – A weekly show on Tuesdays that recaps The Bachelor episode from the previous night – by ABC
- The Rundown from E! (NBC just announced this gets 8 Million viewers/episode)
- Good Luck America – A Snapchat original show (episode one of the new season had over 6 million viewers)
- Game Day – A weekly show on Saturdays during college football season – by ESPN
- The Voice – Additional, exclusive content from the network hit – by NBC
- The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon – Additional, exclusive content from the late night show – by NBC
- Saturday Night Live – Additional, exclusive content from the comedy sketch show – by NBC
- Hungry Hearts with Action Bronson – A reality show about dating – by VICE
- Second Chance – An unscripted reality TV drama series – by A+E
- Phone Swap – New original dating show from Vertical
- Winter Olympics 2018 – Snapchat and NBC announced a partnership for the event
- “Ask Kylie”, a new show hosted by Kylie Jenner
- NBC’s “Stay Tuned” has 29 million viewers in first month
- CNN is launching a news show as well
- Phone Swap gets 10 million viewers per episode
- Snap just announced a partnership with NBCUniversal and Donut for a new scripted series
- SportsCenter (arguably the highest profile Snapchat Show to date) launched a twice-daily show on November 13, 2017
Snap recently announced a deal with Discovery Communications to develop shows for the platform under the Shark Week and Mythbusters properties.
Additionally, MGM Television inked a deal with Snapchat. MGM Television is the first major entertainment studio to sign on as a partner. MGM is involved with popular shows such as Fargo, Survivor, Vikings, and Shark Tank.
Recently, the biggest show of them all premiered: BBC’s Planet Earth II. Planet Earth will also be sponsored by Goldman Sachs, who will be running Snap Ads throughout the episodes.
Raj Mody, vice president of social media at National Geographic (one of Snapchat Discover’s partners), recently told Kerry Flynn at Mashable: “It started out as an experiment, but it’s become really, really real. When you look at our brand we’re a leader in social media and in visual storytelling. The fact that they’re evolving the platform, that’s something that has been enormously helpful.”
Discover has grown to over 40 partners now. And these partners produce more than just the Shows mentioned above. They produce digital magazines, “Editions”, “Our Stories”, and more. In aggregate, this original content on Snapchat is getting hundreds of millions of views per month. Some Discover partners are generating tens of millions in revenue. Vertical Networks’ Discover channel, Brother, now reaches over 1 billion views per month. And that’s not even the largest one.
If Snap can continue to build out original content through partnerships, the platform can continue to evolve and be a go-to destination for premium mobile video. Snap has some inherent advantages that will allow them to pursue this venture: being headquartered near Hollywood and the “cool” factor. Snap seems to zig when other social platforms of the past have zagged. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds over time. As we have written before, Snapchat is the future of television. And here at Wallaroo, we believe in Snapchat.