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Facebook may be cutting its budget for original Watch content
Facebook is reportedly reducing its budget for original programming on Watch. The company plans to spend less on originals and more on talk shows and licensing clips from TV networks and sports leagues, The Information reports. Facebook's investment in Watch overall will reach approximately $1.4 billion in 2020, up from the company's initial billion-dollar budget in 2017.
Facebook canceled two original Watch series
Can you name a single scripted original on the streaming service Facebook Watch? Me neither, which might be why Facebook appears to be cutting back on on them. The social network has canceled the original series Sorry For Your Loss (Elizabeth Olsen) after two seasons and Limetown, the Podcast-centered mystery starring Jessica Biel. All that might mean that FB Watch intends to focus on more popular unscripted programming like Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk, according to Deadline Hollywood.
Spotify's new scripted fiction podcast stars Pedro Pascal and Carrie Coon
Spotify-owned Gimlet just launched a new scripted fiction podcast, Motherhacker. The series explores "the dark side of the web," and it marks another attempt by Gimlet and Spotify to popularize fiction podcasts.
Snapchat launches Creator Shows with Serena Williams and Kevin Hart
In the last year, the time spent watching Shows on Snapchat has tripled. The company wants to take advantage of that. Today, it announced Creator Shows, a new format that will deliver regularly published content from some of Snapchat's most popular stars. It's also adding a Highlights feature, which will let Creators add longer-lasting photos and videos to their profiles.
Cristiano Ronaldo is working on a teen soccer series for Facebook
Christiano Ronaldo is a massive soccer star, a model, a philanthropist and an entrepreneur. He's been involved with a fair share of tech products over the last few years, including a muscle-stimulation device, a line of Monster-branded headphones (Roc Live life Loud) and a ZTE smartphone. Now the sports superstar is moving into media, with a new scripted drama series about a small-town girls soccer team in upstate New York for Facebook Watch.
Time's up for Snapchat's original content
A service built on the two pillars of ephemerality and genitals was always going to be an unlikely destination for entertainment content. That's why it comes as little surprise that Snapchat is closing down Snap Channel, its portal for homegrown "TV" shows. According to Deadline Hollywood, the firm has also let go of Marcus Wiley, a high-profile comedy development executive that was hired in May of this year. Snap Channel had been withdrawn a few weeks ago, with Wiley charged with remaking the outlet in his own image. Unfortunately, original programming, much of it scripted, would have cost far more money than Snapchat wanted to spend. Now, the service will stick with using third-party content from other networks to provide a polite veneer behind which all those genital pictures can hide.
