Snapchat last month quietly shut down the Snap Channel, its channel on the publisher Discover platform where it was releasing original content including short-form series such as Literally Can’t Even.
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Marcus Wiley, head of program planning and development, will move on to pastures new following the announcement.
Snapchat’s USP is that its messages vanish without a trace.
While Snapchat removed Snap Channel from its Discovery section a few weeks back, it appears that a promised relaunch is no longer in the pipeline.
Launched in January, Snap Channel had marked Snapchat’s foray into self-generated original content. The fast-growing social network made a statement about its ambitions in the arena with the May hire of former Fox SVP Comedy Wiley as programming head. If original content does return – which the company doesn’t rule out – it won’t be through Snap Channel.
In September, the company told worldwide Business Times that “yes, Snap Channel is now off the air”, but added that “the team is working hard on something new and fresh”. But the company assessed what those alterations would cost, and decided instead to pull the plug on the project, leaving its Discover feature to rely on videos, programming, and stories produced by partners such as ESPN, Comedy Central, and Vice.
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Henceforth, Snapchat is exclusively reliant upon its Discover partners to populate the offering on a daily basis. If that happens, it will be done via a different venue, not Snap Channel. That said, it’s unlikely the company won’t look to explore original content again in future.
