Gruvi Weekly Digest #99 – Social Media Killed the TV Star

A weekly catch up on things we’ve found interesting over the past week.Featured recommendationWith IGTV Instagram is becoming television for the mobile generation
Instagram has recently announced the launch of IGTV, a new broadcasting platform where users can watch long video in a vertical format. IGTV is building off the popularity of Instagram Stories as a format and the lessons learned from YouTube’s community of content creators.
A couple of weeks back, we shared a study by Zenith that showed that media consumption via the internet keeps increasing. The study projected that it will surpass TV viewerships (in hours/ day) by 2019. If IGTV proves successful, it will likely play a key role in driving this increase.
In his explanation of how IGTV will work, Kevin Systrom, Instagram co-founder, hinted at one of the key elements which they are counting on for success- already established influencers/ creators:
(…) in IGTV, the creators are the channels. When you follow a creator on Instagram, their IGTV channel will show up for you to watch. Anyone can be a creator — you can upload your own IGTV videos in the app or on the web to start your own channel.
As there are no ads (yet) on the new platform, it will be interesting to see how brands will use this new platform; it wouldn’t be unexpected if we’d start seeing professional creators being commissioned with creating vertical format content.
Read and find more about IGTV content here.
Other articles of noteHow Netflix, Amazon and HBO are expanding into Europe
Major streaming platforms are spending more money to drive the number of subscriptions. HBO has already been producing and supporting local content across Europe for the last decade. Netflix and Amazon are starting to follow this trend.
This is also about politics for EU broadcasters, producers, filmmakers, and politicians. They want to see the US streaming services investing more in the local industry (as opposed to just capitalising on the local audience).
Find more about projects currently in development here.
Netflix fires PR Chief After Use of N-Word in Meeting
Netflix is definitely following the trends this year. Either in supporting European original content, or in increasing awareness about racial issues.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings fired Jonathan Friedland who has served as chief communications officer for the past six years after “insensitive” remarks Friedland had made to his team.
Read more about it here.
Featured image via TechCrunch.

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