Snapchat, C4 renew content alliance

School-set drama Ackley Bridge

Snap Inc, parent company of social media platform Snapchat, has bought over 1,000 episodes of Channel 4 shows to feed the Discover section of its app.

The deal with the UK commercially funded pubcaster is an extension of the one struck last year, which brought more than 300 shortform edits of C4 shows to Snapchat.

The new two-year agreement includes shows such as school drama Ackley Bridge, the UK version of entertainment format Married at First Sight and panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

The deal is in alignment with C4’s Future4 initiative, which commits to aiming for digital ratings rather than linear in order to diversify its revenue, something the UK government has said C4 needs to do in its recent report looking into privatising the broadcaster.

Snapchat shows are five minutes long on average, with C4’s Leeds-based 4Studio team responsible for editing down the TV content. Last year, more than 400 million people watched TV shows on Snapchat, while over 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds in the UK have a Snapchat account, according to the company.

C4 CEO Alex Mahon said: “Channel 4 has a unique brand strength with young people and we’re going further and faster than our competitors to ensure we can reach them with UK-produced public service content, such as Hollyoaks, on platforms like Snapchat, where they’re spending more of their time. The renewal of our long-term partnership with Snap is a brilliant example of this strategy.”

Snap senior VP of content and partnerships Ben Schwerin added: “Our renewed and expanded partnership with Channel 4 is a key part of our strategy to bring diverse and relevant content from world-class media brands to our UK community. We’re excited to deepen our relationship, bring more of Channel 4 to Discover and continue to innovate together.”