Netflix Dabbles in Shorter Video Content

"After expanding its service to include live content, video games, and, more recently, video podcasts, the streamer is now adding video content from publishers such as BuzzFeed Studios, Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, People Inc., Tastemade, and various Penske Media PMX brands," said a report released on Tuesday by Netflix's deal partners.

The new videos will vary widely in length, ranging from 2 to 3 minutes to over 20 minutes, according to Netflix and other reports.

The deal is a low-risk way to test whether Netflix's audience has an appetite for the kind of content that's typically native to the web, such as news, lifestyle, how-tos, and other short-form formats that tend to be cheaper and faster to produce than a scripted series.

• The lineup will include both licensed archival and ongoing series coming to Netflix, including:

  • BuzzFeed Celeb's 30 Questions
  • Tasty Recipes
  • Vanity Fair's Lie Detector
  • AD's Walking Tour
  • Elle's Where is the Lie
  • Harper's Bazaar's Burning Questions
  • Billboard's 24 Hrs With
  • Variety's How Well Do They Know?
  • PEOPLE's My Life in Pictures
  • Travel + Leisure's Travel Unfiltered
  • Tastemade's Struggle Meals

• Netflix says other publishers will be added over time.

The announcement follows a Bloomberg report this week which found that Netflix is struggling to retain fans between the first and second seasons of top shows.

• This trend has reportedly worried executives, though it's largely explained by familiar culprits: high cancellation rates, long gaps between seasons, and inconsistent quality.

• To court viewers drawn to short-form video, Netflix already added a TikTok-style feature called "Clips" that lets users scroll through short snippets from its library.

• But where Clips is designed to funnel viewers toward longer shows and movies, these new publisher deals go the other direction, bringing short-form content onto the platform in its own right.

"Members don’t just want to watch a show or film and move on – they want to keep exploring the stories and personalities they love long after the final credits roll. These partnerships help us deepen fandom and create more ways for members to carry those stories with them throughout their day," stated John Derderian, Netflix VP of Animation Series + Kids & Family TV, who is overseeing this project.