According to multiple sources, it’s now official that Instagram’s longer-form video hub set to launch tomorrow is called IGTV and will feature in the app’s Explore tab.
The company has spent the week meeting with online content creators to encourage them to create videos that are akin 10-minute YouTube vlogs rather than the 1 minute maximum that are allowed today. Videos can now range from 60 seconds to 15 minutes.
At present, the company is focusing its efforts around online celebrities that made their name on mobile. The idea is to let these creatives set the norm about what IGTV is about. After all, it is these people that undoubtedly have a knack for this style of content and therefore already have sizeable Instagram audiences.
Over at TechCrunch, news has surfaced that Instagram hopes content to be much like Snapchat Discover. The videos will be full screen, vertically orientated, and with a resolution of up to 4K. App users will be able to see a collection of Popular recent videos and can Continue Watching clips that they didn’t finish.
While its unlikely that these videos will compete with the likes of HBO or Netflix Originals, they should stand a chance against YouTube. The videos will have a link-out option so that creators can drive traffic to other social presences and Instagram is planning to offer direct monetization with the potential of advertising revenue shares.
After press invites were released for June 20th, sources have confirmed this is for IGTV. Based on the app’s growth trajectory that has it adding 100 million users every four months, plus its announcement of 800 million in September 2017, its possible that they will announce 1 billion monthly users today too.
IGTV might also create a whole new behavior pattern for Instagram and, if successful, the company may consider breaking it out into its own mobile app or even building it into an app for smart TVs.
