This month Facebook introduced a small number of its users to TV shows under a new tab called “Watch”, which should soon become more widely available. The social-media platform is streaming live sports such as Major League Baseball and Mexican football. Twitter in May announced deals to stream more live sport and other content, including a 24-hour feed from Bloomberg, a news company; a morning show with BuzzFeed, a digital-news firm; and a daily entertainment show called #WhatsHappening from Propagate, a production company in Los Angeles. Snap has commissioned a number of short shows that target the young users of its Snapchat messaging app.
Many of the new series are inexpensive: an episode might cost tens of thousands of dollars to make, compared with up to $20m for an action-packed hour of “Game of Thrones”. But more costly shows for apps are on the way.
Apple recently hired a pair of executives from Sony’s television studio, with reported plans to shell out up to $1bn on TV shows. Facebook has suggested to possible partners in Hollywood that it will splurge on future series, spending as much as $100,000 a minute. Google’s YouTube, which has already invested heavily in shows featuring social-media stars, is now planning to make more mainstream fare. And Jeffrey Katzenberg, a former Disney executive and co-founder of DreamWorks Animation, is seeking $2bn for a venture to produce top-quality shows that are just minutes long. Imagine Netflix, but for shorter attention spans.
The success of these attempts is uncertain. For all the time people spend gawping at their phones (see chart), they do not often use them to watch video. American adults consume 47 minutes of video each week on a smartphone, according to Nielsen, a research firm; those aged 18-24 watch more, 83 minutes per week. An early, expensive foray into TV made for phones, Verizon’s “go90” app, has struggled since its launch two years ago; the shows have not proved compelling enough to attract a wide audience. But that has not dissuaded the technology companies. Firms such as Facebook, Snap and Twitter are keen for users to spend even more time on their platforms. New shows are potentially a good way to attract them.