TL;DR
- Creator Offers: Instagram is reportedly offering YouTube creators five- and six-figure deals to supply longer videos for a limited test.
- Longer Viewing: Instagram’s Features test supports horizontal videos up to 90 minutes, linked from excerpts in Reels, Instagram’s short-video format.
- Shared Publishing: The reported deals are nonexclusive, and Instagram says creators can retain existing sponsorships.
- Creator Earnings: Selective funding differs from YouTube’s established ad-revenue share; Instagram’s wider Features monetization model remains unsettled.
Instagram is offering some YouTube creators five- and six-figure deals to bring longer videos onto its own app, according to Business Insider. One person familiar with the offers said Instagram wants the videos posted on the same day as their YouTube release.
How Clips Lead to Full Videos
Features is Instagram’s limited test for horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long. A creator can connect a full upload to short excerpts in Reels, the app’s short-video format. Viewers can follow an excerpt to the full upload without leaving Instagram. Creators can link up to eight clips to one long video.
YouTube already supports both longer uploads and short-to-long viewing. Verified accounts can upload beyond the default 15-minute limit, up to 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less. YouTube’s short-video format, Shorts, also supports links to other videos for creators with advanced-feature access. The link directs viewers to the creator’s public or unlisted content.
What the Offers Cover
Business Insider reported $50,000 offers for some creators and six-figure offers for others, with some reaching $500,000. Meta, Instagram’s parent company, confirmed that it is directly funding some Features content. Payment schedules, contract duration and the number of signed creators remain undisclosed.
The arrangements are nonexclusive, multiple people familiar with the agreements told Business Insider.
Reza Izad, a partner at talent agency Underscore Talent, told Business Insider that a promoted new format could give creators more visibility through algorithmic preference and a less crowded field of long videos.
Sponsors and Ad Revenue
Instagram product vice president Tessa Lyons told The Hollywood Reporter that creators could bring videos containing their existing sponsor placements to Features. Instagram also intends to help creators without those brand relationships find deals, she said.
Meta told TechCrunch that its long-term Features monetization model remained unsettled. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has described an economic obstacle to broader payouts: earlier programmes cost substantially more than they returned, while creators often supplied no more content than they had for free. In an interview covered by Business Insider, he said he would welcome expanding payments if they could break even.
YouTube’s Partner Program instead offers eligible creators a defined share of advertising income. Partners who accept its watch-page advertising agreement and enable those ads receive 55% of net ad revenue from their public videos. One long-video eligibility route requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 qualified public watch hours in the preceding 12 months, followed by a channel review.
A Limited Test for Longer Viewtime
On October 26, Instagram confirmed a small US Features test and testing with some creators in Brazil. Instagram plans to expand US access to tens of thousands of creators, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In July 2024, Mosseri argued against prioritizing long-form video because extended viewing displaced friends’ posts and interaction. Discussing Features in October, Mosseri described a complementary role for podcasts or comedy specials that can run in full and also be broken into short clips.
Features lacked playback while using other apps, plus automatic transcripts and subtitles, in Business Insider’s October account. Meta said it planned to add those functions.
