Netflix strikes deals in short-form video push

SAN FRANCISCO - Netflix is pushing deeper into the short-form video territory dominated by TikTok and YouTube, striking licensing deals with a slate of major US media publishers to carry bite-sized content on its platform.

The streaming giant has signed agreements with publishers including Penske Media, BuzzFeed Studios, Conde Nast, Hearst Magazines and People Inc to feature a range of news, lifestyle, celebrity and how-to video programming.

The deal was reported on July 7 in entertainment news outlet Variety, which is owned by Penske Media and will provide content in the arrangement.

Hearst confirmed the deal with Netflix to AFP, but didn’t provide more details.

The content – spanning episodes from around two minutes to 20 minutes or more – is set to begin rolling out on Aug 3 for subscribers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

The deals bring recognisable digital and print media brands onto Netflix’s platform, including Vanity Fair, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Bon Appetit, People and Variety.

Popular series covered by the agreements include Vanity Fair’s “Lie Detector,” BuzzFeed’s “30 Questions” and Variety’s “Know Their Lines?”

“Members don’t just want to watch a show or film and move on – they want to keep exploring the stories and personalities they love long after the final credits roll,” said John Derderian, Netflix’s vice-president of animation series and kids and family TV.

The publisher push comes as Netflix faces mounting pressure from platforms that have reshaped how audiences consume video.

YouTube surpassed Netflix in average daily viewing time in 2025, according to research firm Digital i cited in TechCrunch.

TikTok began closing the gap back in 2024, when US adults were spending nearly as much time on the app as on Netflix, according to eMarketer data.

Netflix acknowledged the competitive threat recently with a product redesign that added a TikTok-style vertical video feed, and has expanded into video games, podcasts and live events.

Internal data reported by Bloomberg showed viewers increasingly abandoning popular shows before a second season – a sign that the streaming giant’s signature binge model may be losing ground to the content habits cultivated by short-form rivals. AFP