Instagram Tests a TV App — Longer Formats, Live Shows, Streaming Competition

Instagram is testing a new TV app that surfaces longer-form episodic content and live shows. The goal is straightforward: give people something to sit through between scrolling. Instead of short clips and Reels, the app is building out series-style content and live broadcasts that compete with Netflix, Disney+, and the rest of the streaming pack.

This isn't Instagram trying to be a content studio. It's trying to be a destination — a place you can open and watch something without thinking too hard about it. Episodic formats encourage you to come back. Live shows create urgency. Together they pull you off the infinite scroll and into something with a beginning, middle, and end.

Why this matters for us: as more of our media migrates to apps that reward watching over scrolling, the shows, creators, and creators of color who land there get seen — and the algorithms that shape what gets promoted start working for us instead of against us.