Is social media the new TV? Cable and linear television have been in decline for years, especially as younger generations consume more entertainment on their phones. In response, traditional studios and streaming services have been experimenting with social platforms. Peacock tested the waters by uploading clips from its comedy Killing It to TikTok, while Paramount broke its 2006 film Mean Girls into several parts on the same platform.
At the same time, microdramas—short, bite-sized video series designed for mobile viewing—have surged in popularity. Networks like TelevisaUnivision and Telemundo have been launching original microdramas. Earlier this month at CES, Disney announced it would begin releasing “microcontent” on Disney+. But what happens when social media doesn’t just live on phones and starts moving into traditional TV screens and living rooms?
In December, Instagram announced it was testing an “Instagram for TV” app that allows users to watch Reels on their televisions. TikTok previously made a similar push with TV apps, before they were discontinued due to compliance with new laws.
On the advertiser side, Pinterest recently acquired connected TV (CTV) ad-buying platform tvScientific, signaling that the company believes advertising dollars may start shifting toward living room viewing for its platform.
That shift is already underway. Social video is now the second-most-watched video type on TVs, according to research from Parks Associates.
Jennifer Kent, SVP and principal analyst at Parks Associates, said this trend is blurring the lines between traditional video media and social video strategies, particularly as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok push for more TV-based viewing.
Kent added that this also correlates with the growth of the creator economy, as traditional media companies partner with creators or launch initiatives dedicated to creator content. Amazon MGM Studios, for example, has collaborated with popular creators like MrBeast on projects such as Beast Games to produce more premium programming. YouTube has also announced efforts to introduce more episodic formats for creator content.
“Lines are blurring all over,” Kent said. “Everybody on the big screen wants to mimic what’s happening on social media, and everyone on social media wants to be on the big screen.”
She added, “The important impact of all of these social video platforms coming to the big screen is the way that they are raising expectations for everybody else that’s on the big screen—to be more interactive, to be more creative with formats, to engage with new creators that can speak to audiences in different ways.”
The growing pains of social media platforms
The roughly $15 billion decline of the U.S. linear TV market has accelerated this experimentation, said Max Willens, a principal analyst at eMarketer. However, he noted that growing competition has also made social platforms more sensitive to slowing growth. For years, platforms could rely on two assumptions: that more users would join each year, and that those users would spend more time on their apps. That is no longer the case.
According to eMarketer, time spent on social media in the U.S. is flatlining and is expected to begin gently declining starting next year.
“Combine social media platforms realizing they don’t have the easy path toward incremental growth with the increasingly spread-out competition, and they face a lot of pressure to try to establish a beachhead on television screens as the budgets that used to go to linear advertisers come up for grabs,” Willens told Observer.
Still, moving into living rooms isn’t a new idea. Willens pointed to YouTube, which launched as a desktop platform, became mobile-first, and is now a major force in TV viewing.
YouTube has also said that more than 150 million Americans watch the platform on TV screens. Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge report found that YouTube captured 13.4 percent of TV viewing time, outpacing Disney’s 9.4 percent share. eMarketer research shows that Americans now spend roughly equal time watching YouTube on TV and on their phones.
“That balance is going to persist over the next couple of years,” Willens predicted. “When you add all those things together, it’s not hard to understand why the social platforms are trying to position themselves on the biggest screen in the house.”
Looking ahead, Willens said both media companies and social platforms will need to adjust their strategies as viewing habits continue to shift.
“They’re all just screens at the end of the day, but it’s not like television has gone away,” he said. “Televisions are not just these big dusty boxes that our grandparents are looking at. They are still central hubs of leisure time for consumers of every age. So, advertisers and media companies have to figure out what’s different about that consumption and adjust their strategies accordingly.”
Saleah Blancaflor
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