Instagram really wants it long video platform, IGTV to succeed. It is now willing to cover the video production costs for IGTV creators but with a catch. IGTV which launched in June last year has struggled to gain traction as it competes with other video platforms like YouTube. They recently redesigned the layout of IGTV as they play catchup. IGTV also now has support for landscape videos. Another feature they’re working on is letting users natively crosspost their IGTV videos to Facebook and Facebook Watch in a bid to increase the platform’s audience.
One of the major hindrances of being a creator on IGTV is the production costs of making an original IGTV video as opposed to just crossposting a YouTube video.
Vertical video makes extra work for a creator, who must either shoot a new video or reformat an existing horizontal one before uploading it to IGTV. Meanwhile, for most creators, YouTube still offers the potential of a bigger audience.
Instagram wants to help IGTV creators by taking care of those costs. It’s a relief but there are restrictions.
Instagram sent contracts to some IGTV creators and agents who are set to get money from the giant social media network that the videoS they’ll create “must not include content about social issues, elections or politics.”
This is strange for the Facebook-owned platform that vigorously defends political speech online and has been on the receiving end of the backlash for allowing politicians to post lies in their ads – even after being fact-checked as false. Twitter recently banned political ads on its platform.
Facebook watch allows creators and news organizations to talk about politics.
“In the last few years, we’ve offset small production costs for video creators on our platforms and have put certain guidelines in place. We believe there’s a fundamental difference between allowing political and issue-based content on our platform and funding it ourselves,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
In the new deal, Instagram offers thousands of dollars to cover production costs for creators in exchange for a certain number of posts. Creators can get up to $250,000 for more than 20 posts.
Other restrictions in the contract seen by Bloomberg say that the videos can’t be sponsored by a third party, can’t promote content on another platform like YouTube, and can’t involve a sweepstakes or product giveaway.
This brought alarm across Influencers, creators and other popular Instagram accounts who have been approached about posting clips on IGTV
https://twitter.com/Lucas_Shaw/status/1193715690970107905
Instagram is paying celebs to upload videos to IGTV, but only if they agree not to post about politics & social issues!
Sorry, Zuckerberg—you can't attack TikTok for censoring political speech & then turn around & do this. https://t.co/Prs6MzAqaQ by @sarahfrier @Lucas_Shaw
— Fergus Ryan (@fryan) November 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/mosseri/status/1193746052265975809
