With its new Features format and reported creator deals worth up to $500,000, the Meta-owned platform is expanding its ambitions beyond short-form video.

Instagram is moving deeper into long-form entertainment with Features, a new format allowing selected creators to publish horizontal videos of up to 90 minutes. The initiative connects short-form discovery through Reels with full-length viewing inside the same app, potentially expanding Instagram’s role from a promotional platform to a destination for programming itself.

The push comes with financial backing. According to Business Insider, Instagram has offered selected creators deals ranging from $50,000 to as much as $500,000 to publish long-form content through Features. Meta confirmed that it is directly funding some participating creators, while declining to disclose individual deal terms.

Those agreements do not require creators to abandon YouTube. Business Insider reported that the deals are nonexclusive, with one person familiar with the offers saying Instagram was asking creators to post the same long-form content they publish on YouTube on the same day. That approach allows participants to test another distribution outlet without giving up their established channels or audiences.

Rather than building an entirely separate programming library, Instagram can therefore encourage creators to bring existing productions into an environment where they already promote their work through short clips. For producers and talent representatives, that could create another outlet for interviews, video podcasts, comedy and personality-led entertainment—provided the economics justify the additional distribution effort.

YouTube already accounts for a substantial share of television viewing: according to Nielsen, the platform captured 15.8% of total U.S. TV viewing in August 2026. Instagram’s move into long-form video could intensify competition for audiences—not only with YouTube, but also with subscription streaming services and traditional television.

The issue is audience attention. A viewer watching a creator-led interview or comedy program is spending time that might otherwise go to a scripted series, a film or another entertainment service. For Hollywood, Instagram’s ambitions could therefore matter even without the platform adopting a traditional studio programming model.

There is an advertising dimension, too. If Instagram succeeds in building sustained viewing around longer programming, it could create more opportunities to compete for video advertising budgets. That remains a strategic possibility, however—not evidence that Features has already established a television-scale advertising business.

The reported creator payments should also be distinguished from a generally available revenue-sharing program. YouTube’s established Partner Program gives eligible creators a share of advertising revenue; Instagram’s initial Features funding instead involves selected participants and individually negotiated arrangements. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has acknowledged the importance of developing that model: “We understand the economics matter a ton, and are exploring multiple options to help long-form creators get paid,” he wrote following the announcement.

For professional producers, the unresolved issue is whether introductory funding will develop into a predictable business capable of supporting production costs over time. Instagram has pursued longer programming before: it launched IGTV in 2018 and discontinued it in 2022, having also experimented with funding episodic creator content and sharing advertising revenue. The central question is whether Instagram can translate its discovery power into a repeat viewing habit—and give creators sufficient financial incentive to keep supplying the programming.

Source: Business Insider, Nielsen, “TV Viewing Cools Off in Nielsen’s August Gauge Reports as Sports Take a Breather and School Resumes,” October 22, 2026.