Comedy Central is pulling the plug on its Snapchat Discover channel
The network has decided not to renew the contract for its Snapchat Discover channel, Business Insider has learned, and Sept. 30 will be its last day on the platform.
The Viacom property, however, is in talks with Snapchat to produce a show for the platform, said sources familiar with the matter.
Comedy Central was among the first 11 select media partners that Snapchat launched its Discover section with back in January 2015. Discover serves as Snapchat's content hub, where media partners program daily digital magazines with dozens of videos, articles and quizzes.
The Discover Comedy Central channel, in particular, produces five to six stories for every edition, including content from existing franchises such as "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah," "Key & Peele" and "Broad City." The stories are curated and produced by its own editorial team and updated daily.
The network seemed bullish on Snapchat Discover until recently, and even enjoyed significant popularity on the platform. In fact, just last spring, Comedy Central had doubled down on its efforts on Snapchat Discover, adding nine new video series to its existing lineup.
But while the shows managed to create buzz and grab eyeballs, Comedy Central and parent company Viacom found it hard to make money off it, a media buyer told Business Insider. Further, some of the network's talent did not like the nature of the content it was producing on its Discover channel, said sources.
Discover's freshness as a platform made it an exciting possibility for networks looking to reach the app's young user base when it initially launched. Back then, the platform had not yet launched original series, which it is now pushing as the primary content format for TV networks on the Discover platform.
But at a time when both Snapchat and Facebook are seeking more exclusive, TV-like content, it is hardly a surprise that networks like Comedy Central are contemplating heading in that direction. If a show deal does work out, Comedy Central will be following in the footsteps of CNN, which ditched its Snapchat Discover magazine in favor of a daily Snapchat news show called "The Update" just last month.
"We have loved our collaboration with Snapchat and look forward to continuing our conversations with them about producing Snap Shows for the platform," a Comedy Central spokesperson told Business Insider.
Sister network MTV will continue with its own publisher tab on Snapchat Discover, at least until December 31, 2017.