Instagram has offered select YouTube creators between $50,000 and $500,000 to publish long-form videos in Features, its new format for horizontal videos up to 90 minutes, according to a Business Insider report by Sydney Bradley and Lucia Moses published October 29, three days after the format was announced.

According to Business Insider, the floor for the offers is $50,000, several creators have received six-figure offers, and the largest reach $500,000. Meta confirmed the funding but did not confirm any amounts. “We’ve been public about the fact that we are funding Features content directly with some creators right now to support them,” a Meta spokesperson told Business Insider. “The details of those deals are confidential, but we’re excited to see the content going live.”

People familiar with the agreements told Business Insider the deals are nonexclusive. One source said Instagram asks creators to post their long-form videos as Features on the same day they upload them to YouTube, which means the platform is paying for parallel availability of new episodes while the videos stay on YouTube. Tubefilter noted that the reporting does not say whether the amounts are paid per video, per month or as a one-time flat fee, so the figures cannot yet be converted into a per-video rate.

The deals connect to how Instagram has described the product. Features is part of the 90-minute video test Instagram launched on October 26 alongside its Apple TV expansion, and creators can link short Reels clips back to the full video. VP of Product Tessa Lyons said in the launch video that people watch Reels together in their living rooms, adding, “We know to do that well, we need more than just short-form video.” The test is limited to creators in Brazil and the U.S., with wider expansion planned over the coming months, according to Social Media Today.

Reza Izad, a partner at Underscore Talent whose clients include Kareem Rahma and Noah Beck, called the deals an “exciting opportunity” in comments to Business Insider. “Every time there’s a new feature in these apps that the company’s promoting, people will have more opportunity to be seen because there’s going to be algorithmic preference to this kind of content,” Izad said. Instagram has not said publicly whether funded Features receive extra distribution.

Mosseri Previewed ‘Bespoke Deals’ Two Days Earlier

The checks match what Instagram head Adam Mosseri described on the “Colin and Samir Show” on October 26. In that interview, Mosseri called Instagram’s existing performance-based payments to video creators “ROI negative” and said scaling them would mean “burning capital,” while saying Instagram would continue to make bespoke deals “to bootstrap the ecosystem.” Mosseri also said those deals, aimed at creators with outsize reach, were intended “to establish legitimacy for the program,” a detail the hosts did not follow up on.

For creators outside the funded group, Instagram has not announced an ad revenue share for Features. A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch it is “too early to share a long-term monetization model” and that the company is “exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans, and Instagram, including performance-based incentives.” After creators complained on Threads and Reddit about the absence of pay, as The Verge reported, Mosseri posted on October 28: “We understand the economics matter a ton, and are exploring multiple options to help long-form creators get paid.”

YouTube’s Partner Program pays eligible creators 55% of the ad revenue their long-form videos earn, and YouTube says it paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies over four years. That program is open to any channel that meets its thresholds, while the Features deals go to creators Instagram selects.

Instagram has funded long-form creator video before. In 2021, during its IGTV push, it paid for episodic shows from creators including TikTok’s Sway Boys and “Dance Moms” alum Nia Sioux, according to Business Insider. IGTV launched in 2018 without ads or a creator revenue share, according to Reuters, and Instagram shut it down in 2022.

Instagram has not named the creators it is funding, said how long the agreements run, or said when it will announce a monetization model open to all Features creators.

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