Snapchat is seemingly giving up on creating original content, as the company has axed a team of about 15 employees that was running what was called the Snap Channel.
Snapchat was initially serious on producing its own content, with the company making a big deal about hiring former Fox senior vice president for comedy Marcus Wiley five months ago. Wiley was a part of the development of successful comedy shows such as Bob's Burgers, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl and The Mindy Project. Wiley was then tapped as the Head of Program Planning and Development for Snap Channel.
A spokesperson for Snapchat said that given the fact that Snap Channel was being wound down, Wiley would be exploring other opportunities.
Snapchat, which has about 100 million active users, was trying to give its users with content that they can digest. Back in January, the company launched the Discover platform that provides users with content from partner platforms such as CNN, Yahoo and Buzzfeed. These companies are paying to be included in the Discover platform, though not much, but it seems that Snapchat has decided to leave the content creation to companies focused on it as opposed to creating its own.
Snapchat took down Snap Channel from the Discover platform a couple of weeks ago, stating that it would soon be relaunched. Wiley and the original Snap Channel team were given the tasks of creating the foundation for Snap Channel 2.0, but after an evaluation on what the relaunch would need in terms of monetary investments, Snapchat decided to pause its original content initiatives.
The shutdown of Snap Channel was a surprise, as there were ongoing discussions with production companies and studios on several possible shows. The team even just moved into a new studio facility, which will now be likely opened up to other Snapchat units.
If Snapchat would someday try to create original content again, it would be hard pressed to hire people to fill up the team. The tenures of Wiley and the Snap Channel team, which lasted for only a few months after such a big announcement, would prove to be a warning to talented people that Snapchat could try to recruit.
