Snapchat launches Snap Originals, 12 daily scripted original shows for its Discover section, with each episode lasting four or five minutes
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the payoff of a three-year build. Snapchat ran its first original web series in Discover back in early 2015, and in mid-2017 its VP of Content Nick Bell publicly committed to debuting scripted shows that would complement TV rather than compete with it. Snap Originals delivers on both threads at once: twelve daily scripted programs, each episode just four or five minutes, living inside Discover.
First-order effects
- Discover shifts from episodic experiments to a daily slate of commissioned scripted programming, giving Snapchat's media partners a recurring slot rather than one-off drops.
- Studios and producers gain a new buyer for ultra-short-form scripts built for vertical, phone-first viewing — a format traditional TV commissioning doesn't cover.
Second-order effects
- Rivals building short-form video surfaces — Instagram, YouTube, Facebook's video push — now face pressure to fund comparable original slates rather than rely solely on user-generated feeds.
- As Snap scales the program, per-series economics become the battleground; the related coverage later pegs Snap's offers at $40K to $50K per episode for ten-to-twelve-episode runs, establishing a price point producers can shop against other platforms.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, social platforms consolidate into commissioned-content buyers alongside networks, making short-form originals a standing budget line rather than a marketing experiment — and giving producers a parallel market to traditional TV sales.
The trend: Social apps are evolving from user-generated feeds into commissioned short-form studios, with Snapchat moving from a 2015 experiment to a daily scripted slate.