Instagram is changing the concept of its IGTV service: it has been renamed Instagram TV and will get new options for publishing videos. The main change will be the option to download videos up to an hour long directly to the main feed. Previously, videos longer than one minute had to be uploaded to IGTV.
According to a spokesperson for the social network, Instagram TV will be where users want to go to watch videos. Additionally, the IGTV feed will now be combined with the video and can be accessed in a separate tab. It was also stated that the Reels short clip format will be offered for sale separately.
IGTV appeared on Instagram in June 2018, designed as a mobile alternative to YouTube, a place where users could watch long videos. However, many did not accept this format very well, and two months later, the TikTok application was launched in the USA, which created great competition for the social network. In response, to attract an audience, Instagram developers introduced its own short video format, Reels, in August 2020, which failed to impose a challenge on rival platforms due to monetization issues for content writers.
