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Everything is TV now, and the competition is heating up. Instagram\u2019s deal<\/a> with Samsung will put the social-media app\u2019s videos on more screens, challenging both YouTube for creator loyalty and Netflix, which has been moving into influencer content. All three continue to peel eyeballs away from cable TV.<\/p>\n Instagram now has the distribution, via Samsung\u2019s estimated 68 million smart TVs across the US, and the content, courtesy of influencers and creators, to compete for the middle screen. Its challenge is making Instagram a primary platform for creators, not just a way to funnel fans to their YouTube pages, where pay for personalities like MrBeast is higher. It\u2019s also getting ready to introduce longer-form videos on Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re late to the game,\u201d Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said last year on Semafor\u2019s \u201cThere\u2019s an immense amount of time spent on TV, where some of our competition is showing up with force.\u201d<\/p>\n The question is whether Meta will make its own content, as it tried to do several years ago<\/a> when it financed high-quality production for shows like Jada Pinkett Smith\u2019s , or simply monetize what those influencers are already posting and split the money. A Meta spokesperson told Semafor \u201cnot yet\u201d when asked about a renewed effort on original programming.<\/p>\n Either way, Instagram\u2019s push onto larger (notably, horizontal) screens signals a shift. For years, it was Netflix who gave cable companies heartburn. Now, podcasts are on our TVs, cable companies are trying to buy them<\/a>, and YouTube television for a younger generation.<\/p>\n