Snapchat May Replace Your Television. Yes, Really.

Last year around this time, we took a look at the way in which social media, specifically live tweeting, complemented regular television consumption. Like clockwork, the world of social has shifted gears and upped the ante on the TV viewing game. We took a closer look at a few recent televised events, comparing TV viewership to related activity on platforms like Snapchat.

2016 Rio de Janiero Summer Olympics

I did my best to catch the live events for some of the more popular races like track and swimming, but I knew that Snapchat would be a solid backup for anything I missed. In addition to the actual competitions, Snapchat’s Live Stories feature pieced together various points of view from Rio. Whether it was Leslie Jones’ play-by-play commentary or fun moments from the athletes, I had my own comfortable curbside 360-degree look into what was going on at the Olympics.

Statistics show that one in three Snapchat users viewed content from Rio via the Live Stories feature. Ten billion videos are watched on Snapchat daily.

2016 MTV Video Music Awards

Here’s some interesting data for you to chew on:

Actual television viewership of the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards plunged 6.5 million (34%) compared to last year. On the flip side, about 21 million unique viewers watched VMA content via Snapchat’s Live Stories.

This continues the trend we saw take root in 2015: 12 million viewers tuned into Snapchat’s Live Story on the 2015 VMAs, while only five million viewers tuned into MTV’s cable network (a 40% drop from 2014).

Add me to the list of people who enjoyed the VMAs via Snapchat. I remember that particular night. I had a list of evening to-dos ahead of me and kept my phone and Snapchat app open. I watched the path of the show while I roved around the house. I didn’t think twice about it — the process was seamless.

At first, Snapchat was perceived as a platform used only by a younger demographic. Hollywood is providing more reasons and ways for entertainment lovers of all ages to enjoy real-time content without being in front of the television. Let’s all admit it: Do you really like waiting for the commercials to spin by? Me neither.

See you on Snapchat!

Blagica Bottigliero
VP, Digital Media