In a memo to staff sent Wednesday, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said that company management is “restructuring our business to increase focus on our three strategic priorities: community growth, revenue growth and augmented reality.”

Since 2017, Snap has been investing in original productions for the “Discover” section of its Snapchat app, but will now end that initiative. Earlier this year, Snap announced a new programming slate, featuring talent including Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and the social media influencer Charli D’Amelio.

And in a note to the Securities & Exchange Commission, Snap said it expects the cuts, which involve around 1,300 workers, to save the company around $500 million annually. 

As a key part of the restructuring, Snap promoted Jerry Hunter, previously senior VP of engineering, to the position of chief operating officer, where he’ll lead monetization, growth, partnership and content initiatives. 

Announcement of the trims came just after Snap’s two highest-ranking advertising executives, Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor, said they were leaving to work for Netflix.

Snap revenue growth flatlined in July, a dramatic deceleration from the nearly 40% growth rate the company was clocking before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Snap has viewed as particularly impactful to its bottom line. 

“Unfortunately, given our current lower rate of revenue growth, it has become clear that we must reduce our cost structure to avoid incurring significant ongoing losses,” Spiegel wrote in the company memo. “While we have built substantial capital reserves, and have made extensive efforts to avoid reductions in the size of our team by reducing spend in other areas, we must now face the consequences of our lower revenue growth and adapt to the market environment.” ■

The move will let Snapchat’s young viewers check out the venerable painter’s artistic instructions while enabling Cinedigm and its advertisers to reach a new audience.

All 31 seasons of The Joy of Painting will be available free with ads on Snapchat.

"Since the way audiences view and engage with entertainment is constantly changing, so is Cinedigm’s approach to the market. We carefully assess the landscape and cater specific content for specific platforms,” said Daniel Schneider, senior VP of revenue at Cinedigm. “The Joy of Painting from The Bob Ross Channel was the perfect series to debut on Snapchat. We are thrilled to give the Snapchat community, which has over 600 million monthly users, a new avenue to watch one of our most popular series.”

The Bob Ross Channel is carried on platforms including Pluto TV, Samsung Tv, Roku, Redbox, Freevee, Vizio WatchFree, Tubi, Stirr, Xumo, Sling, Plex, Atmosphere TV and LG.  ■

Other companies in the ad tech sector also saw their stocks fall on the news.

Late Monday, Snapchat filed an 8K with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing that the economic environment has deteriorated faster than expected since the company discussed its expectations for the second quarter and issued guidance to Wall Street that revenues would be up 20% to 25%. 

“Even though our revenue continues to grow year-over-year in the second quarter, it's likely that revenue and EBITDA will come in below the low end of our guidance range," the company said. 

“It’s certainly something that we're working through along with many other businesses that are impacted, of course, by the supply chain issues, inflation, concerns about interest rates, the war in Ukraine,” it said.

Snap shares dropped by $9.69 a share to close at $12.79.

In addition to Snap, other online advertising companies saw their stocks tumble.

“When thinking about the impact of the open-internet, since the announcement, we've had the opportunity to talk with 10 public and private ad-tech vendors and the general consensus was that the announcement came as a surprise. We have not heard any comments that align around deteriorating conditions but would note that Snap was the first name to report in the space on 4/21, which may have led to the differing perspective,” said analyst Matthew Swanson of RBC Capital Markets.

“More broadly, public and private vendors alike agreed that the macro remains challenging, but that they are not seeing a worsening environment. This was consistent for both brand and performance-based advertisers that we talked with as well as companies with varying degrees of geographic, format and vertical exposure,” Swanson said.

In the media sector, Steven Cahall of Wells Fargo identified several companies that could be impacted by an ad slowdown caused by macroeconomic factors. 

Comparing the current situation to the 2020 ad recession, Cahall said, "If this time is similar it likely means that within our coverage CTV (e.g. Roku, Vizio)  and AVOD (e.g. Paramount’s Pluto and Fox’s Tubi) will be hardest hit initially. The length and depth of the recessionary slowdown will determine whether pain makes its way to the longer cycle areas of the ad market.”

Roku was down 13.74% to $79.16, Vizio was down 8.8% to $7.74. Paramount was up 0.11% to $8.78 and Fox was down 5.12% to $30. Warner Bros. Discovery was down 7.82% to $16.86, Disney was down 4.01% to $101.59 and Comcast was up 0.44% to $43.07.

Among ad tech stocks, The Trade Desk was down 18.51% to $42.78, Magnite was down 13.15% to $9.25, and Pubmatic was down 15.85% to $18.37.

Facebook stock was down 7.62% to $181.28. Google was down 4.95% to $110.36 and Twitter was down 5.52% to $35.76.  ■

Also: House Dems Grill Facebook, Google, Twitter

They pointed to disinformation hangover from the 2016 presidential election, like the stat that a recent poll found that over 40% of Americans said they didn't believe President Biden was the legitimate winner of the election, or what has become known as "the Big Lie."

Among the steps they want Big Tech to take are preventing disinformation targeting non-English-speaking communities, consistently apply "civic integrity" policies to all their live content, prioritize fact checking, including of political ads and posts from public officials, and provide watchdogs and outside researchers real time access to data.

Also: Big Tech Defends Twitter Trump Ban

"Election disinformation targets voters year-round," said Nora Benavidez, Free Press senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights, in a statement. "This is a systemic effort to discredit and disenfranchise certain voters—and especially those in communities of color—that has been made worse by platforms and their inability to protect their users from bad actors. These social media companies must do better in the run-up to November's midterms, starting with fixing their algorithms, protecting people equally, and increasing their transparency."

The groups concede that social media can be an important tool in promoting democracy, but only when there is responsible oversight and protections. Without those, they warn, their platforms will "become known as the dominant threat to a thriving democratic process." ■

Blumenthal, chair of the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee, wrote to TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube as a follow-up to an Oct. 26 hearing in his subcommittee at which representatives of all three testified.

Also read: Blumenthal Says Facebook Chronically Ignores Alarms

“Your representative agreed to provide me with your internal research on the mental health effects and addiction-like use of your platform by children and teens,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Snap. Similar letters were sent to TikTok and YouTube. “Your representative also agreed to make your platform’s datasets and algorithms accessible for independent researchers to assess these risks. Thank you for your commitment, as this transparency and access is critical to identifying possible harms to young users and preventing their devastating consequences. As the subcommittee works to draft protections for kids online, this information is also vital to our legislative efforts.”

Various bills have been introduced that could reduce Big Tech's civil liability for third party content tied to how they do or don't protect users.

A Facebook whistleblower’s documents on that company’s internal research on the impact of Instagram on young people helped generate Congress’s interest in getting access to similar documents from other platforms.

Blumenthal was particularly focused on making sure independent researchers could study the “profound risks” of their platforms, suggesting he has already drawn some conclusions.

The senator also wanted to know if they planned to withhold any information and, if so, why.

He wants answers by Nov. 24.

Also: Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube Agree to Capitol Hill Grilling

To make sure nobody missed the latest potential Big Tech beatdown, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the Subcommittee, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), ranking member, had issued a press release in advance of the hearing pointing out who was testifying and where to stream the proceedings.

In his opening statement, Blumenthal left no doubt about his concerns with edge providers in general. He said Facebook's revelations had led to a "definite and deafening" drumbeat of revelations, and of calls for action from Washington, and not just targeting Facebook. He said that there is there is ample evidence to launch investigations into social media platforms.

Also: Sen. Blumenthal: Facebook Chronically Ignores Internal Alarms

And while he said this hearing was about continuing to educate the committee about "this crisis," it was also about reading those platforms a riot act. Blumenthal said it was the first time TikTok and Snap had appeared before Congress and he appreciated it, but that was about the last encouraging word from him.

Sen. Blumenthal said that Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube were part of the crisis, and along with Facebook were sending the message to American parents: "You cannot trust Big Tech with your kids," and Big Tech can't say to parents it is their job to be the gatekeeper.

Like Facebook, he said, those platforms' algorithms exacerbate downward spirals for teens, fuel hate and violence, amplify depression, anger, and anxiety, and do so because those emotions hook kids on their platforms. He said that was why there was a drumbeat for accountability to "parents, the public, Congress, investors, shareholders, the SEC and other agencies.

Having read the witnesses testimony, Blumenthal said their argument was that "we're not Facebook." But he said that was not a defense, and that the Facebook bar was "the butter," and it should not be a race to the bottom.

Sen. Blumenthal, one of the legislators branding Big Tech with the Big Tobacco label, did say that there was a distinction between the two given that tobacco was inherently dangerous, while social media could be beneficial with proper safeguards.

Blackburn continued the punishment. 

She said for too long social media platforms had been allowed to promote and glorify dangerous content and that she had heard from parents, teachers, and mental health professionals all with the same question: "How long are we going to let this continue, and what will it take for platforms to crack down on this dangerous material."

She said children as young as nine had died after doing viral challenges on TikTok and girls had been lured into sexual relationships on SnapChat. Then there was the videos of people slitting their wrists on YouTube. "You are parents, how can you allow this," she asked. "Does it matter to you?" She answered her own question, suggesting they loved to attract young audiences with content fed to them with algorithms.

Both Blumenthal and Blackburn said social media were driving kids and teens down dark rabbit holes.

Stout said SnapChat is not a "rabbit hole" because it curates its content, including by choosing trusted content partners.

Miller said that YouTube prohibits content glorifying eating disorders, though eating disorder content could be on the platform if it is people sharing their stories around the issue.

Blackburn also called out TikTok for its Chinese connection and collection of data, from keystrokes to geolocation to facial recognition to audio from smart speakers, that could be used by China to surveil U.S. citizens as the Chinese government does to its own citizens.

The witnesses all said they had protections in place for young people, including tools for parents; that they have age limits and remove too-young user accounts when they find them or inappropriate content when they find it; that the majority of users had positive experiences with their platforms, and that they have all done internal impact research and either had, or would, share it publicly.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) clearly appeared unpersuaded. She said that she did not think that kids and democracy should be collateral damage to the profit-seeking of social media.

SnapChat's Stout said that the platform's architecture "was intentionally designed to empower people to express a full range of experiences and emotions with their real friends, not just the pretty and perfect moments." But she also said the company "takes into account the unique sensitivities and considerations of minors when we design products."

TikTok's Beckerman said that company's goal is "providing an age-appropriate experience for our younger users." When pressed by Blackburn, he also said that the company does not share data with the Chinese government and he had research to prove it.

YouTube's Miller said the company has "clear policies that prohibit content that exploits or endangers minors on YouTube and we have committed significant time and resources toward removing violative content as quickly as possible."

From data privacy failures to allegedly dangerous algorithms, there is bipartisan angst and anger over a Big Tech sector once the bootstrap darlings of Capitol Hill. The latest hearing was billed as examining "how tech companies treat young audiences, including how algorithms and product design choices can amplify harms, addiction, and intrusions into privacy." The goal is to come up with legislation essentially to protect kids and young people from all that bad stuff.

The hearing, the fourth in a series on the Web and young people's safety, came against the backdrop of new criticism from the subcommittee of Facebook, driven by more documents from whistleblower Frances Haugen (the headline of a top-of-fold Washington Post front page story: "Insiders [Sa] Zuckerberg Chose Growth Over Safety").

"If TikTok, Snap and YouTube were as wonderful and responsive to concerns as their representatives asserted, there wouldn't have been any need for hearings," said Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay (formerly Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood). "Unfortunately, these platforms are plagued by the same problems as Facebook and Instagram: privacy abuses, and design features and content that jeopardize young people's wellbeing and safety. The underlying issue is a business model that prioritizes engagement and data collection over the best interests of children. That's why we need a US design code. Legislative proposals like the KIDS Act and the Kids PRIVCY Act will get us there but only if Congress acts with the urgency these issues require."

The hearing is the bipartisan handiwork of Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security chairman Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and ranking member Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), both of whom have been highly critical of edge provider practices.

Also Read: Big Tech-Targeted Senate Bill Introduced

“The bombshell reports about Facebook and Instagram — their toxic impacts on young users and lack of truth or transparency — raise serious concerns about Big Tech’s approach toward kids across the board,” said Blumenthal, who has been saying for a while that he wanted to get representatives from other platforms to testify before the committee.

The Oct. 26 hearing is the fourth in a series on the impact of the edge on children and young people.

“Big tech companies continue to prioritize profit over safety and, in doing so, are harming children online,” Blackburn said, going further than Blumenthal in hammering the upcoming witnesses by name. “TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube all play a leading role in exposing children to harmful content.”

Blumenthal has said he believes Big Tech is having a Big Tobacco moment, an observation that came following the revelations about Facebook's internal research findings that some young people found Instagram contributed to their depression and negative body image.

Also Read: ‘How to Stop Facebook’ Campaign Launched

Facebook, Instagram’s owner, has bought a lot of airtime in Washington for ads arguing for regulations on its content moderation, likely because it sees Washington is serious about regulating the platform. The social-media giant wants to head off the potential elimination of its immunity from civil liability for most third-party content on its sites under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The free episodes include the first episode of the new HBO Max Original series Gossip Girl.

Also Read: Jason Momoa Competition Series 'The Climb' on HBO Max

“People love to come together to watch their favorite HBO Max shows and talk about what’s unfolding," said Sarah Lyons, executive VP, DTC global product management, HBO Max. "Our partnership with Snapchat is another step towards fulfilling that desire for human connection and providing our fans with co-viewing opportunities, while deepening their emotional relationship with the brand. We believe humans value recommendations that come from other humans, so having the opportunity for friends to suggest, and then subsequently watch content together paves the way for more meaningful discovery.”

Upon entering the HBO Max Mini, Snapchat users will have to enter their birthday to access shows. Snapchat users will be able to access watch groups that are viewing episodes with an age appropriate rating.

Users can watch an episode through synchronized playback together, chat and share Bitmoji reactions throughout the show.

Following each episode, users 18 years and older, will be presented with the option to go to HBO Max to subscribe.

HBO Max will be offering Snapchat users the pilot episodes of the series Craftopia, Euphoria, The Flight Attendant, Game of Thrones, Genera+ion, Looney Tunes, Love Life, Lovecraft Country, Selena + Chef, Titans, Warrior and World of Calm. Also available is the first episode of season two of Betty.

“We’re excited to partner with HBO Max to offer our community an innovative co-viewing experience inside of Snapchat,” said Alston Cheek, director of platform partnerships at Snap, Inc. “Snap Minis offer an exciting new way for HBO Max to create social experiences for fans of its programming, complementing our incredible Snap Originals and partnered content available on Discover. The Mini is easy to use, and instantly brings friends together to watch their favorite titles and discover new shows for free.”

HBO Max said it is the first major stream to build a Snap mini with full-length episodes.

With First Commercial, advertisers are assured that the first thing a Snapchat user sees when they open the app is an unskippable six-second commercial. The product has been in beta since April and has been used by brands including NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Tinder.

Snapchat said that during the beta trial, the lift in brand awareness is more than two times higher for Snapchatters whose first ad on the platform is a commercial versus a Snap Ad.

“We know we can count on Snap to consistently deliver creative tools and media formats that help us engage with our audience in novel ways, putting our members at the center of our brand while giving them the freedom to create in ways that inspire them,” said Nicole Parlapiano, VP of North American marketing for Tinder, the first brand to run First Commercial alongside a national lens and national filter on the same day. Snap said the cost per completed view of the commercial was 4 cents. 

“For the launch of our Photo Verification feature, we used a National Lens and National Filter to highlight how these selfies can make your Tinder experience more authentic,” Parlapiano said. “At the same time, we added a First Commercial to the mix so that we also reached users watching shows on Snapchat’s Discover platform. All together, these three touch points drove meaningful adoption of the feature across the US.”

Snapchat said that First Commercial will be available in Snaps Ads Manager in mid-October.

First Commercial is part of a push to sell more video advertising to fit with programming on its Discover Platform as the number of Snapchatters watching shows on the platform has increased by 45% in the second quarter compared to a year earlier. 

As part of that effort, Snapchat has hired video ad sales executives, including David Roter of Twitter and Peter Naylor of Hulu.

Snap also said it will launch three new docu-series featuring talent that it said resonates with its community.

Honestly Loren, from ITV America and Sirens Media, features social media star Loren Gray exploring what happiness really means to her. Life’s a Tripp from Trooper Entertainment features Tripp Redd, who is voting for the first time in 2020 and takes a journey to experience major issues from drug addition to police reform with celebrity friends. Swae Meets World from Big Fish Entertainment, is centered on Swae Lee as he prepares to launch his first solo album apart from his brother.

All three series are scheduled to debut in 2021.

The show, Fake Up, features optical illusion makeup artists who transform their own face into works of art. Viewers can use AR to try on custom lenses that bring the show’s illusions to life and try it out on their own face.

The lenses are sponsored by Verizon and a special 5G experience will be available to Verizon customers.

Advertisers like Verizon are turning to Snapchat to reach its 100 million people in the U.S., including 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds. 

Shapchat points to a new Nielsen analysis of more than 20 ad campaigns that found that Snapchat added 23% incremental reach to TV campaigns among the advertisers’ demographic target. 

Snap also announced a new Snap original, The Drop (N TWRK), a shoppable show featuring exclusive street wear from celebrities and top designers. The unscripted series premieres later this year with new episodes appearing weekly. 

Another Snap original, Driven, will return for a second season. The series, about young entrepreneurs who deliver custom cars to celebrities and high rollers, had more than 15 million Snapchatters watching during season one.

Snapchat has been evolving its advertising offering. A year ago, it launched Snap Select, which offers six-second spots that can’t be skipped within its most popular content at a fixed CPM (cost per thousand viewers). In November, it added Extended Play Commercials that can run up to three minutes.  

In April, Snap launched First Commercial, which lets an advertiser make its message the first thing a user sees when they decide to watch a Snap show.

The ad offering is expected to evolve under Peter Naylor, the former Hulu sales head who joined Snap as VP of sales for the Americas in April.  

Snapchat will point to campaigns that show its ads work. For example, Bud Light’s Snap Select campaign delivered 46% incremental reach against light TV viewers. Snap was nine times more efficient at building reach than TV, according to Nielsen. 

In another campaign, Doritos garnered incremental reach of 168% among light TV viewers 18-49.

Naylor’s departure follows The Walt Disney Co. acquiring control over Hulu, having acquired stakes in the streamer from former co-owners 21st Century Fox and Comcast. 

Hulu CEO Randy Freer stepped down in January as Disney moved to more tightly integrated Hulu into its direct-to-consumer group, which also oversees Disney+. Disney named Kelly Cambell as president of Hulu in February. She had been Hulu’s CMO.

At Snapchat, Naylor will be reporting to Jeremi Gorman, who joined the company in 2018 as chief business officer. He will be responsible for driving Snapchants growth in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

As part of this new structure, Luke Kallis, VP U.S. Advertiser Solutions, and Dominic Rioux, VP Emerging Advertising Solutions, will report to Naylor, as well. Matt McGowan, GM for Canada.

David Roter, who leads agency efforts as VP Global Agency Partnerships NY, and Claire Valoti, VP International, will continue to report to Jeremi.

Before joining Hulu, Naylor was executive VP of digital media sales for NBCUniversal.

Nielsen’s It’s In The Bag: Black Consumers’ Path to Purchase report states that African-Americans continue to be voracious consumers of television content, spending more than 50 hours watching live and time-shifted television a week in first quarter 2019, over 10 hours more than the total population, according to the research company.

“It doesn’t matter how many other streaming services we have access to, traditional television viewing is still number one with the African-American population,” said Cheryl Grace, senior vice president of U.S. strategic community alliances and consumer engagement for Nielsen. “What that looks like is 91% of every African-American can be reached weekly via television primarily through what we’re watching in real time and what we save on our recording devices.”

The tv shows African-Americans are watching don't always match that of the general population as black viewers gravitate more towards content that reflect their images and storylines -- particularly among younger viewers. Among adults 18-34, only Fox’s 911 and Empire show up among the top 20 most watched shows for both the African-Americans and the total population. VH1’s Love & Hip Hop franchise, Black Inc. Crew and Fox’s  cancelled Star are among the top 10 most-watched shows in young, African-American households that are not ranked on the top 20 most-watched TV show list for the total population.

Despite  heavy usage of traditional media, African-American consumers are on the cutting edge of new content distribution platforms and devices. Overall, 61% of African Americans are fascinated by new technology and 37% are more likely than the total population to be the first among their peers to try new technology products, according to Nielsen.

That includes a whopping 96% of all African-American adults having and using a smartphone, compared to 95% of the total population, according to Nielsen. Further, African-Americans 35 and older surpass all consumers in their age group by 2% for smartphone ownership.

Not surprisingly, African-Americans spend more time consuming video on their android phones and iPhones compared to the total population. Nielsen reports that Blacks spend nearly 30 hours a week on websites and apps on their smartphones, more than three hours more than the all consumers as a whole.

Youtube is the most consumed entertainment app for African-Americans at 79%, while Netflix has the highest market share among subscription video on demand apps with 39%, according to Nielsen. Hulu is second with 15%, followed closely by Amazon Prime Video at 14%.

On the social media front, Facebook is the top choice for African-American adults, with more than 65% of black adults using the service, according to Nielsen. Grace added that African-Americans overindex in the use of other social media services such as Instagram, SnapChat, Pinetrest and Twitter compared to the total population.

Yet despite African American consumers’ high consumption of traditional and new media -- as well as an estimated annual buying power of $1.3 trillion dollars -- Grace said companies are not increasing ad dollars targeting black consumers. She added that about $18 billion was spent on African-American-focused media in 2018, an overall decline of 5% from the prior year, with declines in such platforms as cable television (down 1%), digital media (-12%), network TV (-13%) and syndicated TV (-11%)

“Unfortunately despite how much we watch television and look at our digital devices, it doesn’t add up to the [ad] spend that we’re seeing,” she said. “We’re watching more, and yet [advertisers] are spending less to reach us. This is a problem.” 

That’s the conclusion of the latest eMarketer report, which estimated that U.S. ad spending on digital video will grow about 30% this year to $27.82 billion. And Facebook will control 24.5% of that overall spend with video ad revenue of $6.81 billion.

That figure represents 87% of overall digital video ad spending on social media platforms, Snapchat and Twitter included.

It also surpasses the estimated $3.36 billion YouTube will generate in U.S. ad spending, which represents 17% growth.

Related: Facebook Stock Plunges After Revenue Miss

“In-feed video has been a successful ad format for both Facebook and Instagram,” eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson said in a statement. “Marketers rely on in-feed video ads to capture users’ attention and build brand awareness. A newer video ad format, in-stream advertising in Facebook Watch shows, is still relatively new, but we think advertisers will increase their usage of it because it is similar to linear TV advertising.”

While Twitter and Snapchat control only a small portion of U.S. video ad money, they both have a growth trajectory to report.

Snapchat controls only round 5.1% of U.S. dollars spend on social video, but its revenue from the category will increase 19% to $397.3 million in 2018, eMarketer projects.

Twitter, meanwhile, controls about 8.1% of social video spending, and will see its revenue from the category grow by 12% to $633.3 million.

Overall, video now makes up about a quarter of all digital ad spending, eMarketer said. 

Adding another distribution channel to the mix, Cheddar has launched daily business news programming on Snapchat.

Cheddar, the business and technology news service that caters to younger audiences, said new editions of Cheddar’s Publisher Story will offered worldwide at 6 a.m. ET every weekday on Snapchat’s Discover page.

RELATED: Cheddar Raises $22M, Eyes International Expansion, New Network

Cheddar’s Publisher Stories on Snapchat will center on four core themes: Personal finance, career, “innovative” business news, and cryptocurrency.

Snapchat adds to a growing list of digital distribution channels for Cheddar. Others include Altice USA (via its internet-connected Altice One gateway); Hulu, YouTube TV, Sling TV, Layer3 TV (now part of T-Mobile), Comcast (on X1), Amazon, Facebook, Spotify, Twitch and Twitter.

RELATED: Altice USA Adds Cheddar to Its New Platform

Syfy said December 7 marked the debut of Geekly, a Snapchat show that centers on genre news and events from the week.

The show, which will have an eight-week run and is produced by NBCU’s Digital Lab, is the first on Snapchat from Syfy Wire, the genre news site that is coming off a summer 2017 brand reboot. Geekly is hosted by Andre Meadows (Black Nerd Comedy) and Whitney Moore (Geek and Sundry), with a new episode appearing Thursdays at 6 a.m. ET on Snapchat’s Discovery page.

Each episode premieres in 3-5 minute installments, and are featured on Snapchat for 48 hours. Past episodes are available via Snapchat’s search feature.

“Genre fans live at the forefront of digital innovation, so it was important for us to find a platform for Geekly that was a natural fit for where and how our audience consumes content,”  Matthew Chiavelli, SVP of digital for SyFy, said in a statement. “Snapchat is the perfect partner to roll out this snackable and fun new series. “As the source for all the latest geek news across film, TV, books, comics, games and tech, Geekly is an exciting way to expand SyFy Wire’s  expertise and POV to even more fans of the genre.”

Geekly is a project tied to a broader partnership between Snapchat and NBCU announced in August 2016.

ESPN will launch a new a new edition of SportsCenter on social media service Snapchat, the network announced Monday.

SportsCenter on Snapchat, which will run three to five minutes and will include a mix of the latest sports news highlights and commentary, premieres today at 5 p.m. ET. Regularly scheduled shows will debut Tuesday at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays, and once at 5 a.m. on weekends, ESPN said.

Today’s first show will be hosted by sports personality Katie Nolan, with other SportsCenter on Snapchat hosts including Elle Duncan, Cassidy Hubbarth, Jason Fitz and Cy Amundson.

"SportsCenter on Snapchat provides a creative new format and platform for our flagship franchise to continue to evolve," said Connor Schell, ESPN executive vice president, content in a statement. “Katie, Elle, Cassidy, Jason and Cy collectively bring a new style, energy and substance that I believe will connect with Snapchat’s audience in a real way. I’m thrilled to bring this level of talent and personality to a new and innovative daily touchpoint for ESPN."

Discovery Communications’ Eurosport unit and Snap have formed an agreement to create Olympic content for Europe on Snapchat’s Discover platform.

The companies said it was Snap’s first multi-language European deal.

Related: Discovery Selling Mobile TV Olympic Rights in Europe

The plan is to attract younger viewers with mobile content offering behind-the-scenes action from Olympic events including snowboarding, downhill and freestyle skiing, and ice hockey.

Discovery’s ad sales teams across Europe will be able to offer brands the opportunity to reach younger, digitally minded viewers through Snap ad packages.

“We are thrilled to bring the excitement and passion of the Olympic Games directly to Snap’s dynamic and engaged younger audience, allowing Discovery to deliver on its promise to bring the Games to more people across more screens in Europe than ever before" said Michael Lang, president, international development and digital for Discovery International. “This partnership delivers original content, through Discovery’s unparalleled and innovative storytelling of the Olympic Games, to one of the most powerful and influential social media platforms in the world.”

Ben Schwerin, vice president of partnerships for Snap, said “Snapchat gives sports fans an unparalleled way to experience the Olympic Games and engage with their favorite athletes and teams. Discovery has already been a great collaborator for us, reimagining their iconic Shark Week franchise into a show for Snapchat. We’re thrilled to be expanding our partnership to give Snapchatters across Europe the best Olympic Games experience possible.”

Discovery and Snapchat already work together in the U.S. where Discovery creates mobile shows for Snapchat’s Discover platform. During Discovery’s Shark Week, 17 million viewers watch Shark Week on Snapchat.

Snapchat is used by 57 million people daily in Europe, the company said.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be the ‘The Home of the Olympics’ on Snapchat in Europe, and to give our Olympics sponsors and advertising partners exclusive access to the audiences and conversations that only Snapchat can deliver during one of 2018’s most high-profile sporting events,” said Jonathan Davies, managing director, International advertising partnerships for Discovery and Eurosport.

Providing further evidence of social media’s influence on programmer strategies, Discovery Communications has inked a new deal to create short-form videos exclusively for Snapchat and its Discover platform.  

The initiative, focused on Snapchat’s “mobile-first” audience, will center on short-form shows “inspired” by Discovery programming properties such as Shark Week and MythBusters. The initial slate for Snapchat are expected to debut in the U.S. in the “coming months,” they said.

 They’ll also work together on ideas for sponsors that tie Snap’s ad tech and formats with Discovery’s stable of advertisers.

“We’re thrilled to introduce our iconic Discovery content to the Snapchat community,” Paul Guyardo, chief commercial officer at Discovery, said in a statement. “There are few other platforms as dynamic and engaging, especially among younger audiences.”

“Discovery are world-class storytellers who have turned unlikely subjects into cultural phenomena,” added Nick Bell, VP of content at Snap Inc. “We have seen what they can do when developing and producing creative concepts for TV and we’re excited to see what’s in store as they apply their talent and expertise to this new medium.”

Mark Lopez has been an hombre ocupado since taking the helm of Univision Communications’s digital-facing initiatives in April.

The former Google executive, now executive vice president and general manager of Univision Digital, has helped the Spanish-language media firm rapidly spool up a variety of projects, including a partnership with Snapchat; the debut of a mobile app that turns viewers into a judge for La Banda, the music- focused reality show; the launch of a fantasy soccer service based on Liga MX; and Univision’s “Creator Network” that taps into online video’s growing talent pool.

Next TV editor Jeff Baumgartner recently spoke with Lopez about these new projects and their role in Univision’s digital transformation. An edited transcript follows.

NTV:What was the big driver in your decision to join Univision?

Mark Lopez: I think the projects we’re putting together here are a great opportunity. When you look at the U.S. market opportunity and the consumers who make up that opportunity, the bulk of that growth is within the multicultural consumer.

Univision is uniquely positioned to go after that opportunity from the standpoint of the assets that the company has — the brand affi nity that the Hispanic consumer has … the amount of experience with content development the company has historically, and currently the focus that [Univision has] to really bulk up [its] digital assets.

When you look at all of that, it provides a great platform to really build a very unique project, which, to me, is really about a next-generation media company going after the multicultural consumer, the growth consumer in the U.S. That’s really what attracted me to come to Univision to put that together.

NTV:Now that you’ve been on board for about six months, what are your top priorities as 2015 wraps up and we head into 2016?

ML: For us, the acceleration of our digital business is paramount — getting to scale faster when it comes to our core Hispanic consumer. We define scale as both extending our TV content and programming onto the digital realm and finding additional, incremental distribution areas for that content, whether that’s … YouTube, Snapchat or also extending into second-screen apps like the Screenz [an interactive TV developer] app that we’ve done.

It’s about scaling that piece, but also looking at digital-only opportunities as we develop original content and as we help our other assets outside our core Spanish-language area develop and grow faster.

NTV:We’ve seen an increasing number of programmers develop and launch direct-to-consumer offerings that play outside of the traditional programmer-distributor dynamic. Is this something Univision will also have to consider — a standalone digital service that features your primary offerings?

ML: I think we have opportunities to leverage our brand … to develop digital-only content initiatives, whether that’s original programming, whether that is tapping into the influencer market through the Univision Creator Network, or partnering with production houses like what we’re doing with Dirty Kitchen out of Colombia to develop original content.

We want to piggyback on what we currently have to develop, versus doing it all from scratch.

For us, the multicultural Hispanic space is a space that we have a ton of experience with our brand that spans 30 years, and we think that we can win in this space when it comes to digital.

NTV:Is a big digital presence still a nice-to-have complement, or has it become critical table stakes?

ML: When we look at our audience footprint, we really look holistically at what we have with both linear and digital. Univision as a whole reaches close to 40 million media consumers monthly. We know that the growth [along] those touch points is going to come mainly from digital. That’s why it’s critical for us. To develop the footprint and the scale, which we currently have, we want to accelerate but also to develop the knowhow to go after that consumer across the board.

NTV:What’s the biggest challenge in reaching consumers via digital? Finding ways to reach them when compared to how it’s done via traditional TV?

ML: I think reach and engagement is a challenge, but it also goes around the capabilities of provisioning content for each of the distribution windows that you’re going against.

It’s very different for us when we produce content for our O&O properties than it is for producing content with our UCN partners for YouTube [or] producing comedy content across Flama or even doing a Snapchat Live Story with our soccer content. All of those things bring different capabilities to the table and I think the winners will be the ones that can develop across all of those windows that matter and get content in front of consumers.

NTV:Let’s talk a bit about some specific digital-facing projects that are underway, starting with the Snapchat partnership. How did that come together, and what results have you seen so far?

ML: [Snapchat is] a very important window for a lot of our programming. Initially, we worked with them on our sports content to develop Live Stories for our live soccer matches, our U.S.-Mexico matches that they could basically promote on their Live Story feed. That worked very well, basically developing incremental audience for that content.

When you can develop 2 [million] to 3 million additional unique users out of that event, it’s definitely incremental in nature. From there, we really have migrated to develop more content pieces that we can distribute through Snapchat holistically among other distribution networks.

NTV:Univision’s Conecta app ties in engagement across Facebook, Instagram, Periscope, Snapchat, Vine, YouTube and Twitter, allowing users to become La Banda’s “fourth judge.” How has this helped to increase engagement with the show?

ML: We developed that in partnership with Screenz. We ran that against La Banda, which is our reality show focused on music and it provides tremendous engagement during the show … Conecta allows us to get, on average, 30 minutes of extra engagement with that audience through the app.

NTV:Your Creator Network is an outlet for YouTubers and Viners. How is Univision leveraging that program, and are you making some of that content available through TV and digital?

ML: You could see the UCN [Univision Creator Network] being a standard MCN [multichannel network], but it’s not by any means. What we’re trying to do first is listen to what is trending in the marketplace — some of these creators are producing amazing content — and see what opportunities we have to bring them into both our tentpole events and with linear programming.

NTV:How do you pick who gets selected for that? Do they register or apply?

ML: As part of our UCN, we have a dedicated team that works with our creators. We work with the long tail as well as the fat tail. We work with the up-and-coming creators that have potentially very low traffic on YouTube … and want to go on and create more long-form video.

I would say that a lot of it is trial and error, but also it’s getting deeper relationships with the content creators and having the assets and the team in place to be able to do that. It’s critical for us, because that’s where the next generation talent will come from.

NTV:Univision Deportes launched its own soccer fantasy league in the U.S. this summer. What kind of a following has that seen since its launch? Is that purely ad-supported?

ML: We saw an opportunity to develop soccer-related fantasy product. We decided to launch our own that’s ad-supported, so we have partners like Ford. It’s scaling very nicely and focusing on soccer and what … we can bring on TV and [turning] that into a fantasy experience online.

Our hope for that is to take this dedicated audience and keep growing it and potentially continue to scale the advertising business, and look at potential ways to partner with [companies] that have different business models besides advertising.

NTV:In addition to locking in more engagement with viewers, particularly millennials, how are you monetizing some of these digital efforts? Have you blocked off some separate ad inventory for this, or are you looking at complementary subscription-based offerings?

ML: On the advertising side, I think we need to bring the entire message out to the marketplace. It is complementary to each other … We have current relationships with Hulu and with Netflix and with new services that are coming into the marketplace, like the new Verizon [go90] service. Our goal is also to become strategic partners from a content perspective to other distributors and partners, so we can balance a little bit of the revenue mix and it’s not all depending on advertising.

The arrangement officially began July 26, with Univision’s coverage of soccer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup final. The concluding match of the main tournament, featuring men’s national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean, saw Mexico defeat Jamaica 3-1 in Philadelphia.

Throughout the game, Snapchat users helped to create “unique Live Stories” around the event. Snapchat users attending the event use the Live Stories offer their own perspectives through uploaded photos and videos, creating a collective visual tale.

Snapchat curates each Live Story, capturing how participants experience the event from every angle. Each Live Story is several minutes in length and available for Snapchat users to view for 24 hours.

The partnership builds upon a Live Story built around an April Mexico-United States men’s soccer friendly featuring that aired on Univision Deportes. Snapchat and Univision are exploring a Live Story tied to the Copa America Centenario for summer 2016; Univision hopes to extend Live Stories to its proprietary awards shows, such as Premios Juventud and Premio lo Nuestro.

“Snapchat is the perfect platform for us to extend our reach among young, highly digital Hispanics who consume our content on mobile,” Univision Digital executive vice president and general manager Mark Lopez said. “Our audience responded incredibly well to our first engagement with Snapchat around the U.S. versus Mexico friendly, and we knew immediately that we had to align more of our content with Snapchat’s platform, to enhance the stories and commentary around live events.”

Ben Schwerin, director of partnerships at Snapchat, added: “Snapchat Live Stories throw our community into the action of events, creating a very unique and personal fan experience. We’re excited to be able to bring Univision fans new and old closer to the action of their major sports matches and more.”

Snapchat is eager to win marketers looking to reach Hispanic teens and young adults. With 26 million users in the U.S. sending out roughly 400 million “snaps” every day, half of whom are age 16 to 24, using Snapchat to engage with Latinos seems like a no-brainer, given population trends.

According to company data, 22% of U.S. Snapchat users (some 6.6 million people) are Hispanics. This information was extrapolated from U.S. Census Bureau demographics for the age segment, Snapchat said, and does not take into consideration that Hispanics are early technology adopters and use social network more frequently than their white non-Hispanic counterparts.

Pew Research Center’s 2015 Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview noted that African-American and Hispanic youth report more frequent Internet use than white teen-agers. Some 34% of African-American teens say they go online “almost constantly,” as do 32% of Hispanic teens, while 19% of white teens go online that often.

Research was conducted from Sept. 25-Oct. 9, 2014, and from Feb. 10-March 16 of this year. Pew found that 11% of all teens, regardless of ethnicity, used Snapchat.

Several brands actively targeting Hispanic consumers, including Nissan and Coca-Cola, have already engaged in Snapchat marketing initiatives. The question now is whether or not such forward-thinking advertisers will buy in to sponsor Live Stories. If so, Univision could be one step ahead in becoming a bigger 360-oriented media entity.

Turns out that Hillary Clinton is in the minority when she talks about favoring a Snapchat app that automatically deletes messages (she is under the gun over allegedly classified emails on her server), but that may be a factor of age.

In a new Pew Research Center survey, only 17% of respondents with smart phones use apps like Snapchat or Wickr, which do not preserve messages, compared with 36% who use messaging apps such as Kik or iMessage, which do.

But those numbers change markedly among younger demos. Roughly half of smartphone users ages 18-30 use a messaging app, and 41% use a message-deleting app.

Pew pointed out that such apps are free and, when used with WiFi, don't use up SMS data. The study also noted that message-deleting apps offer more private online socializing than Facebook or Twitter.

The study found that use of Pinterest and Instagram has doubled since 2012, with 31% using Pinterest, up from 15% in 2012, and 28% using Instagram, up from 13% in 2012.

Growth has leveled off, however. None of the social media platforms in the survey had significant increases in the number of users between September 2014 and April 2015, though among those who already use them, frequency of use had increased significantly.

Facebook continues to dominate among social media sites, with 72% of online respondents saying they use it, 70% daily and 43% several times a day.

The study found that 15% of Internet users are on discussion forums including reddit, Digg or Slashdot, while 10% use Tumblr.

The survey was conducted March 17-April 12, 2015, among 1,907 adults 18-plus (of whom 1,612 are Internet users). The margin of error for all respondents was plus-or-minus 2.6 percentage points.

The effort, which is one of the first between Snapchat and a television network, kicks off with the Gold Cup Final on July 26. Live Stories is a curation tooll that allows users to contribute their unique perspectives on an event via photo and video Snaps, a feature Univision said is attractive to the growing mobile TV audience.

“Snapchat is the perfect platform for us to extend our reach among young, highly digital Hispanics who consume our content on mobile,” Mark Lopez, executive VP and general manager of Univision Digital, said in a statement, noting that a previous Snapchat project around April's USA vs. Mexico match showed “immediately that we had to align more of our content with Snapchat’s platform, to enhance the stories and commentary around live events.”

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Messaging platform Snapchat has launched an ad-supported platform offering users curated video collections from a group of TV networks and other content publishers.

Cable networks ESPN, CNN, Comedy Central, National Geographic, Food Network and Fusion are among the first networks delivering content for Snapchat Discover, which Snapchat said provides a “storytelling format that puts the narrative first. This is not social media.”

The editorial and multimedia content is curated by each contributing company and packaged as individual daily editions featuring five to 10 stories each. Each provider’s content will be refreshed every 24 hours.

Snapchat estimates it reaches 100-plus million monthly active users. So far at least a dozen content providers have joined the platform, including Yahoo News, People, Vice Media and other print and online publishers in addition to the networks.

Read Snapchat's blog announcing Discover and watch a video touting the new platform.

ABC Family will preview the Jan. 6 winter premiere episode of Pretty Little Liars on social media service Snapchat, the network said Monday.

Fans of the series can tune in to Snapchat to watch the first three minutes of tomorrow’s episode in short “snaps” throughout the day until 7 p.m., an hour before the premiere of the series, said network officials.

Pretty Little Liars is one of the network’s most social show. The series is the top ranked scripted series on Instagram, the top scripted show on Pinterest and represents the top six most tweeted episodes for a scripted series, according to the network.