Netflix Adds Short Publisher Videos to Service, Testing Bite-Sized Content for Viewers

Netflix will begin streaming short videos produced by a group of digital publishers starting Aug. 3 in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the company’s partners confirmed Tuesday. The slate, supplied by outlets including BuzzFeed Studios, Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, People Inc., Tastemade and several Penske Media Group brands such as Variety and Rolling Stone, will span genres from lifestyle and food to music and celebrity clips. Run times will range from a couple minutes to more than 20, the partners said.

The content mix will include both back-catalogue pieces and ongoing short-series produced by the publishers. Netflix said it will add more publishing partners over time. Rather than a uniform length or format, the new offerings are meant to sit alongside the streamer’s existing library as standalone shorts that viewers can watch without committing to a full episode or season.

The move is another experiment for Netflix as it seeks to broaden how people use the service. Over the last few years the company has opened its platform to live broadcasts, video games and video podcasts, and it introduced a vertical-scrolling Clips feature that surfaces brief moments from longer titles. These publisher deals differ from Clips: they bring publisher-made short content onto Netflix as independent pieces, not simply as teasers meant to funnel viewers to long-form programming.

Industry analysts say the change reflects pressure from shifting viewing habits. Recent reporting has suggested Netflix is having more trouble keeping viewers engaged from a show’s first season into a second, a pattern executives have flagged as a concern. Factors cited by analysts include frequent cancellations, long waits for follow-ups and uneven hit quality — and viewers now split attention between traditional streaming rivals and social platforms that specialize in quick, snackable video.

“Short videos give services an easy way to keep people checking in throughout the day,” said Maya Chen, a media strategist who consults with streaming platforms. “They cost far less to produce than drama series and can be refreshed quickly. But they also change how a platform is valued by subscribers, so the trick will be balancing the quick hits with the tentpoles that still draw big audiences.” Chen added that publisher partnerships let Netflix test demand without committing internal resources up front.

Netflix has not said it will build a permanent short-form arm in-house, but the company framed the initiative as a way to give subscribers more ways to follow the personalities and topics they like. For viewers, that could mean easy access to recipe demos, short interviews, travel shorts, music clips and other publisher-produced vignettes directly inside the Netflix interface, alongside the usual shows and films.