// THE VERGE — MOBILE & WEB
Streaming is still trying to be TikTok
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At Skydance’s first employee town hall after it acquired Warner Bros. Discovery in October, CEO David Ellison told staff that the company behind Paramount Plus and HBO Max was competing for people’s attention with some of the world’s biggest tech companies. Months earlier, he’d singled out a way to get viewers to spend more time with Paramount’s programming. A feed of short vertical videos, he said, was “critical to our future.”
On Skydance’s earnings call Monday, Ellison put a name to the competition. Add up all of Paramount’s and Warner Bros. Discovery’s broadcast, cable, and streaming properties, he said, and they still trail YouTube in US television watch time, according to Nielsen. Ellison said Paramount Plus engagement had risen more than 20 percent since Skydance acquired Paramount last year. He didn’t mention how the clips feed panned out.
Over the past year, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Netflix, and HBO Max have introduced swipeable feeds of short videos in their mobile apps. A great scene can help a subscriber pick a show. A steady stream of clips could also get them to open the app when they only have a minute to spare. The bet is that both will make the subscription feel more worth paying for. But so far, the streamers have shared little about whether these feeds have succeeded in giving people another reason to stay subscribed.
On YouTube, a few clips can be the whole visit. YouTube accounted for a record 15.8 percent of viewing through US TV sets in August, according to Nielsen. YouTube also leads in time spent watching video on phones, where it competes with TikTok and Instagram, says Ross Benes, a senior analyst at eMarketer. The firm estimates that US adults spend a little over an hour and a half a day watching video on mobile devices and about two and a half hours on connected TVs. It counts simultaneous phone and TV viewing in both totals.
The streamers have plenty of shows to clip, but they’re up against social apps with millions of people making something new reacting to that existing content every day. A scene in a streaming app is a pitch for the full episode. On TikTok or YouTube, a creator’s reaction to that same episode can be the reason you open the app in the first place. There’s something to come back for, even when the show is between seasons.