What Instagram launched

On October 26, Instagram began testing a new format called Features: horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long, built for podcasts, interviews and episodic shows. Here's what shipped and what's coming.

• Features — long-form horizontal video, up to 90 minutes. Shows up in the main feed and on Explore. Testing with select U.S. creators now, expanding to tens of thousands.

• Linked Reels — up to 8 clips can point to one full video. A fan watches a clip, taps once, and lands in the full episode without leaving Instagram.

• Instagram for TV — the TV app now prioritizes Features across Samsung, Fire TV and Google TV, and just launched on Apple TV. Start an episode on your phone, finish it on the big screen.

• Series — a dedicated home for episodic content on a creator's profile, with a Watch Next button. Rolling out through the end of 2026.

• Live — live streams will soon be recommended to non-followers in the Reels tab.

Instagram is not adding a YouTube-style ad revenue share. Sponsorships stay the way shows make money on the platform.

Why this matters for athlete-led shows

Until today, Instagram was where a show got discovered and YouTube was where it got watched. Clips went viral on IG; the full episode lived somewhere else. That gap is closing.

Clips now have a destination. A 30-second moment from your show can carry a fan straight into the full episode. Your short-form stops being a highlight and starts being a doorway.

The audience you already built gets deeper. Most athletes have their biggest following on Instagram. Features means that following can watch a full episode without being asked to go somewhere new.

Your show lands in the living room. Instagram for TV with cross-device resume puts a podcast on the same screen as a game broadcast. For sponsors, that's logo placement in a lean-back viewing environment, with Instagram view counts to back it up.

Episodes become a catalog. Series gives a show a proper home on the profile, in order, with a Watch Next button. Fans binge; new viewers find episode one.

Live gets discovery. Live shows have only ever reached followers. Non-follower recommendation in the Reels tab changes that math.

What LEAGUE is doing about it

We're moving on this now, not after it rolls out to everyone.

1. Requesting early access to Features and Series for every show on the LEAGUE network and for our pages, which reach 315M+ monthly viewers.

2. Restructuring short-form so each episode has a set of linked clips that drive into the full episode, alongside the standalone clips that travel on their own.

3. Cutting TV-ready masters with sponsor placements built for the big screen.

4. Organizing every show into seasons so Series hubs are clean the day access lands.

5. Keeping YouTube as the home for full episodes and treating Instagram as the second window, so no show gives up revenue to chase reach.

If you're a LEAGUE show, nothing is required of you. Our team is handling the formats, the uploads and the sponsor conversations.

The bigger picture

Instagram spent years saying it would never do long-form. It just did, with a TV app, Apple TV, and a clip-to-episode funnel shipping together. That's a platform deciding that shows are the next battleground.

LEAGUE builds shows for exactly this moment: athlete-led, produced to broadcast standard, distributed across a network that already owns the short-form audience. If you want to talk about what this means for your show or your brand, reach us at info@thisisleague.com.

Sources: Instagram announcement via Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Press Publish.