Tuesday, Snapchat announced a lineup of eight new Snap Originals, including a documentary series on controversial rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine from Complex Networks.
“Tekashi69 VS The World” docu-series follows the rise and fall of rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine from his days growing up in Brooklyn, to his chart-topping career including star-studded collaborations which ultimately led to his arrest on racketeering, weapons and drugs charges, and his plea deal on nine felony counts. According to Variety, the series will premiere this fall and will be the first installment in Snap’s new “VS The World” franchise covering big names in hip hop, sports, and entertainment.
The messaging and media company also announced a transgender beauty icon Nikita Dragun docu-series on Sirens Media, as well as “Everything’s Fine,” a scripted comedy about a bipolar college student from Paul Feig’s Powderkeg that features music by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz.
Sean Mills, Snapchat’s head of content says with the new slate of series, the app is delving into new formats it hasn’t tried before. The new series span a variety of genres, including character-driven docu-series, unscripted shows, scripted dramas, thrillers, and comedies.
“While we have been doing this for some time, we’re still in an experimental phase and trying things for the first time,” Mills said.
Over the past year, the time spent watching Snapchat Shows has more than tripled and the total daily time users spent watching the Discover page has increased by over 60 percent and the number of daily viewers has grown by 35 percent, according to the company. In the U.S. alone, Snapchat claims to reach 90 percent of all 13-24 year-olds and 75 percent of all 13-34 year-olds.
Although Mills declined to say whether the investment in original programming is profitable, he explained the importance of providing users with expansive content.
“We believe this is really valuable investment in our business — we think about our content business as part of the holistic engagement on Snapchat.”
The shows will begin airing this fall on Snapchat’s Discover page.
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