Most people would say (Snapchat’s child) Snap and TV shows don’t mix. But they do now. Because Snap and NBC now produce script television shows.
So Mark and Jay Duplass lead the charge. You don’t know who they are? Over the years, they gave us independent films like Jeff Who Lives at Home. Then, from 2015-16, they gave us HBO series Togetherness. And now, they own their own production company, Donut. However, Snap and NBC came together before. We all know NBC’s talent show mega-hit The Voice. At our computer service shop water cooler, we talk about that show often. Well, they cater that show to Snapchat audiences.
I say this to prove they did this before, and they can do it again. We don’t know much about what this show. But the Duplass brothers say that it will be “a terrifying and terrific creative challenge”. It will also be in vertical video format. But that’s not all. Snap and NBC will start a partnership venture. This involves a new digital content studio in Santa Monica. It will also be run by NBC executives. So basically, it’s Snap’s own studio in Hollywood, which NBC runs. This is the closest Snap comes to actually producing original TV shows.
However, there is another problem, here. I am somewhat familiar of the Duplass’ body of work. Movies like Jeff Who Lives at Home and shows like Togetherness didn’t exactly cater to the 13-24 year old crowd. This is a problem because 60% of Snapchat users are between ages 13-24. So we can assume the majority of Snap users are in this age group. I don’t know what the Duplass next show, but it needs to cater to this age group. And I hope their Santa Monica office gets this message too. You know, IT service and entertainment are so intertwined today that it makes me wonder. Will we even need TV’s by the 2020s?