Social media moves into the living room
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Social media platforms are expanding to TV as people spend more time watching short-form videos from their couches, not just on their phones.
Why it matters: Connected TV ad spending is growing faster than social video, representing a lucrative new ad market for social media companies.
Driving the news: Instagram announced Tuesday a pilot for a TV app to watch its short-form videos, Reels. The app is only available on Amazon Fire TV devices in the U.S., for now.
- The TV app can include up to five Instagram accounts. People can also set up a new account exclusively for TV viewing.
- Reels play automatically. People can choose to like and comment on Reels. The videos are sorted into channels, such as for you, popular with friends, new music and sports highlights.
Flashback: Instagram head Adam Mosseri hinted at this move in October at the Bloomberg Screentime conference. "If behavior [and] the consumption of these platforms is moving to TV, then we need to move to TV too," he said.
State of play: Instagram is just the latest social app investing in dedicated apps and ad businesses for TVs.
- YouTube has been leaning into TV the last few years as watch time grows there, including for its short-form videos, Shorts.
- TikTok had TV apps, though they briefly vanished from TVs earlier this year to comply with a law that could have banned the platform, and then were discontinued in June.
- Pinterest is buying tvScientific, a CTV ad buying platform, to expand its reach into living rooms.
- X released a new TV app in 2024 as it was looking to become a more video-first platform. But it's no longer functional across Samsung, LG and other TVs, based on recent testing by Axios. (The company did not respond to a request for comment.)
- Spotify and iHeartMedia are partnering with Netflix to bring some video podcasts to the platform, which could then be watched on TVs.
The big platform: Platforms are looking to close the gap between how people consume content and where brands spend money.
- CTV ad growth and social media ad growth are expected to level out to roughly the same pace by 2028, per eMarketer. While social media advertising continues to command a greater share of the ad market in the U.S. than CTV, not all social media ad spend is video-specific.
- Video-focused ad spend on social media is growing slower than CTV in the U.S., according to a different data set from PwC.
- Instagram also pitches its new TV app as a way to make the platform more communal by enjoying social videos with friends in person. That comes as spending time on devices and social media has been linked to loneliness and depression.
- The TV app also follows Instagram's new PG-13 rating system, signaling to parents and advertisers that it aims to be a family-friendly and brand-safe experience.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that TikTok no longer has TV apps.
