Netflix is adding short-form video from Variety, Rolling Stone, and BuzzFeed as it competes with YouTube and TikTok

TL;DR

Netflix licensed short-form videos from BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, Hearst, and Penske brands. Launches August 3 in six markets as Bloomberg reports viewer drop-off.

Netflix is licensing short-form video content from publishers including BuzzFeed Studios, Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, People Inc., Tastemade, and several Penske Media brands such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Eater, and IndieWire. The content launches August 3 in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

The videos range from 2 to 3 minutes up to more than 20, covering news, lifestyle, how-tos, and celebrity content. The lineup includes BuzzFeed Celeb’s 30 Questions, Vanity Fair’s Lie Detector, Billboard’s 24 Hrs With, Variety’s How Well Do They Know, and Tastemade’s Struggle Meals, among others. Netflix says more publishers will be added over time.

The move follows a Bloomberg report that Netflix is struggling to retain fans between first and second seasons of top shows, a trend that has worried executives. The company already added a TikTok-style “Clips” feature for scrolling through short snippets, but that was designed to funnel viewers toward longer content. These publisher deals go the other direction, bringing short-form content onto the platform as standalone viewing. Netflix has been using generative AI to address content discovery, but the deeper problem is competition from YouTube and TikTok for the same viewing time.

“Members don’t just want to watch a show or film and move on, they want to keep exploring the stories and personalities they love long after the final credits roll,” said John Derderian, Netflix VP overseeing the project. For Netflix, the deals are a low-risk way to test whether its audience has an appetite for web-native content that is cheaper and faster to produce than scripted series. If it works, the platform strategy mirrors what tech companies are doing with AI, expanding into adjacent surfaces where users already spend time rather than waiting for them to come back to the core product.

Published July 7, 2026 - 6:17 pm UTC

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