NBC Launches Snapchat Stay Tuned, The First Daily Live News Show

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Snapchat and NBC News announced earlier this week that they’re uniting to launch the first daily news show on the social network. Snapchat Stay Tuned will appear on the social network‘s Discover platform two times a day Monday through Friday and once a day on Saturday and Sunday. The news was enough to boost Snap shares on Wednesday and support them on Thursday, but not enough to keep the momentum going on Friday.

Details on Snapchat Stay Tuned

NBC News will produce a morning and afternoon edition of Snapchat Stay Tuned on weekdays. Coverage will include both national and international news, culture, politics, and other topics. The media outlet will also offer breaking news updates on the social network.

It sounds like NBC is going all-in on Snapchat here, as it has a team of 30 people putting together the daily news program. Andrew Springer is the executive producer of Stay Tuned, while NBC News correspondent Gadi Schwartz and MSNBC correspondent Savannah Sellers will host it.

NBCUniversal was Snapchat’s first big media partner, the company says. In August 2016, NBC launched its hugely popular singing talent show The Voice on Snapchat, and then after that, it added The Rundown, which airs on E!, World of Dance, and Saturday Night Live. NBC said it is in the process of developing other shows for launch on Snapchat as well. The Voice on Snapchat was nominated for an Emmy recently.

How to watch Snapchat Stay Tuned

To watch Snapchat Stay Tuned, All you have to do is open the Snapchat app and then swipe to the left to reach the app’s Stories Page. If you scroll down, you will see the show in the list of featured items under “Shows.” Swiping left from there will bring you to a dedicated page in Snapchat’s Discover platform, which also features the show. Tapping on the image tile will bring up the show, and you can fast-forward or rewind using your finger on the screen.

Stay Tuned will be live on Snapchat at 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Eastern Monday through Friday or 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Snap stock plummets

Shares of Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, rose on Wednesday for the first time in a while, buoyed by the news about the NBC partnership. However, by Friday, the stock began to plunge, falling by more than 3% to a new all-time low. The stock was on track to dive below $14 a share for the first time.

Right after the news was announced, Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White weighed in on it with commentary in a note to investors. He has a Buy rating and $30 price target on Snap stock and noted that investor sentiment around it has been hovering at “ghastly levels” due to several factors. Among them are daily active user growth, the lockup expirations on millions of insider-owned shares and increasing competition from Facebook.

Is this what Snap needs to beat Facebook?

White called Stay Tuned “further evidence of Snap’s push to expand the original content” on its platform. He watched the first episode of Stay Tuned, which lasted about 3.5 minutes. He found it to be “informal and concise” and also “refreshing and informative.” He also described it as “a quick and entertaining way to get the top news stories of the day.” He explained that it centered around four main headline stories, which were Trump and Putin, attempts to repeal Obamacare, Hip Hop music’s rise, and the Venezuela crisis.

In general, the analyst expects an increase in original content such as this to increase user engagement on Snapchat and result in revenue growth over time. He also noted that other original shows are in the works, including the rumored show Ghost Hunt. Time Warner also recently signed a two-year deal with Snap for $100 million to produce content and put ads on Snapchat.

Original video content can be seen as the next big land grab. Netflix sort of spurred the interest, and now Facebook’s live platform enables nearly anyone who wants to put a live stream up to do so on the social network. Facebook has been able to copy Snap at nearly every turn. In this area, the company pretty much already beat Snapchat, although the fact that NBC is even going this far with a social network that might not make it is certainly interesting.

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