Instagram's decision to bring its TV app to Samsung Smart TVs while testing episodic series and live creator experiences marks more than another feature rollout. Industry executives say it is a calculated attempt to capture the next wave of connected TV (CTV) advertising, turning Instagram from a mobile-first platform into a cross-screen media business.
The move expands Instagram's television footprint beyond Amazon Fire TV and Google TV, eight years after the platform first ventured into long-form video with IGTV, a product that was eventually shut down. This time, however, executives believe Meta is avoiding the mistakes of the past by taking content that already works on mobile and extending it to the living room instead of asking creators to produce an entirely different format.
Gopa Menon, COO and Co-founder of TheBlurr, says the strategy is fundamentally different from IGTV. “Instagram failed at long-form once already because IGTV asked mobile creators to make TV content for a mobile audience. This time it's not changing the content, it's changing the screen. It's taking the Reels that already exist and series that creators are already stitching together on mobile, and just giving them a second screen to land on.”
But Menon believes the larger motivation is advertising rather than content.
“I think the real driver is advertiser monies. That's where ad budgets are moving. Globally, CTV upfronts are set to overtake primetime linear television for the first time this year, while advertiser intent to spend more on CTV is running well ahead of paid social. Meta isn't chasing eyeballs on TV just for reach. It's chasing a budget line that's currently flowing to YouTube, OTT platforms and broadcast.”
According to Menon, Meta's competitive advantage lies less in putting videos on television screens and more in bringing its advertising infrastructure along with them.
“The advantage Meta's building toward isn't the big screen itself. It's measurement. Any CTV player can…