Streaming Services Post More Video Than Ever on TikTok: Exclusive Data

Major streaming services are collectively posting more video clips to their main accounts on TikTok than to any other social media platform, surpassing even YouTube, according to data from media analytics firm Tubular Labs provided exclusively to Variety Intelligence Platform. In the final months of 2023, starting in October, the collective number of monthly video uploads on the platform surpassed the number of uploads on their main accounts on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, respectively.

By December, video uploads on TikTok reached an all time high of 973, up from 892 in October and surpassing YouTube (772). Streaming services measured included Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Paramount+, Max, Peacock and Apple TV+. It’s worth noting that the trend reflects the streaming services’ cumulative posting activity, though some services have an outsize impact.

For example, over the last year, Netflix accounted for 24% of the total TikTok videos posted by streaming services, followed by Prime Video (21%), Max (21%) and Peacock (15%), while shares from other services ranged in the single digits, per VIP+ analysis of Tubular data. Overall, the rise in posting activity on TikTok in recent years is notable, as it reflects the growing stature of TikTok and the rise of video content on social media.

The final uptick in the last months of 2023 may also be attributable to the phenomenon that first surfaced last year, in which TikTok users found themselves spending hours watching TV and movie content on their smartphones, consuming entire episodes or films in dozens of short clips uploaded to the shortform video app.

Though much of this viewing activity was attributed to unofficial TikTok accounts, streaming services have responded to the trend’s popularity by emulating the strategy in a few notable experiments. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of “The Sopranos,” HBO this week, among many other commemorations, is debuting the show’s official TikTok account with the groundbreaking “Sopranos in :25,” a series in itself, comprising 25 second recaps of all 86 episodes.

In October, Paramount Pictures launched an official TikTok account for “Mean Girls” on which it posted the entire movie spliced into 23 clips, and in August Peacock posted the pilot episode of “Killing It” to its main TikTok account ahead of the show’s season two premiere on NBC. These experiments were new in kind, but as the data shows, they aren’t isolated instances of studios posting video content to TikTok.

For years, many have been actively posting clips to the platform to drive awareness and engagement around their shows or movies — just not movies or TV shows in full. In 2024, the TV and movie watching trend among users on TikTok could add more incentive for studios to ramp up video posting on the app, meaning the mix could shift increasingly in favor of TikTok.

Streaming services posting more videos to social media has been met with outsize surges in viewing on TikTok in particular, with total views on streamers’ main U.S. TikTok accounts surpassing YouTube for the better part of the last two years. (Note: YouTube data from Tubular extends back only the past three years, and Instagram data is unavailable because it doesn’t make views a public metric.) Judging by these measures alone, TikTok is fast gaining influence and primacy as a key distribution platform for shortform video clips posted by studios.

As a way to distribute video, TikTok could eclipse other social platforms — even YouTube — as the place where streamers upload the most TV and movie promotional content. Over the past several years, total monthly video uploads for these accounts have been trending up across all social platforms.

But TikTok’s rise has been particularly steep relative to others, with total uploads increasing by 82% in 2021 and 74% in 2022. While 2023 saw slower growth, TikTok uploads still grew 32% year over year, roughly on par with YouTube. When drilling down into the studios’ best performing content on TikTok, note that many TV shows ranking among the top hashtags are new releases in the current zeitgeist that understandably gained viewer traction on the platform over the last year, including Max’s “The Last of Us” and Prime Video’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” But older shows also made an appearance in the top ranks, notably ABC’s “Modern Family,” with both Peacock and Hulu posting clips to TikTok and collecting 60.42 million views.

While “Modern Family” is a comedy with “clippable” comedic moments, its positive performance suggests studios shouldn’t feel restricted to promoting only new content. Rather, skillfully promoting library content that’s available on streaming services can perform equally well on TikTok, helping viewers discover or rediscover older series or movies to regain passionate audiences among a new generation of fans, in a way analogous to “Friends” on Netflix.

Older series, movies or IP also appear among the top ranking hashtags when evaluating a bigger set of 300 TikTok accounts operated by streaming services, not just their main TikTok accounts. Note that these channels aren’t exhaustive of the ones each studio operates, and non English language channels and those unrelated to movies and TV content (e.g., sports, news or talk shows) are excluded.

For studios, the goal behind uploading TV and movie clips to social platforms is driving awareness and engagement — ideally such that it drives viewers back to the original streaming service to subscribe and engage. But streamers may need to do more than just upload clips to generate interest and acquire subs.

Case in point: Amazon developed a TikTok original web series called “Plot Pitch,” featuring stills from movies and TV series available on Prime Video in a quick cut format with rapid voiceover that explains the main points of the plot. “Plotpitch” also ranks among the top hashtags for video views across TikTok channels operated by streaming services, driving 210 million views and enthusiastic comments on 256 videos uploaded in 2023.

The growing user behavior of viewing TV and movie content on TikTok seems increasingly durable and unlikely to dim. While piracy regarding unofficial accounts is a reasonable concern, studios and their streaming services can also likely benefit from users’ interest in premium entertainment on the app, particularly when there’s so much else they could be watching..