According to Variety, Snips has signed agreements with Banijay Rights and BIG Media to transform existing TV series and films into short-form vertical microseries using its proprietary AI editing system.
The deals turn titles including Big Brother, MasterChef, Humans, Merlin and The Fall into mobile-native programming without funding another production. Banijay and BIG Media keep the underlying IP and receive a share of the revenue generated on Snips.
Hollywood has spent years looking for additional ways to monetize its libraries. Snips is creating a new window based on format, screen orientation and viewing behavior.
One Title Becomes 60 Episodes
Snips plans to convert each licensed title into approximately 60 episodes running between 45 seconds and two minutes.
Its AI Film Director identifies scenes, restructures episodes and creates cliffhanger endings while preserving the central storyline. The result is a serialized mobile product assembled from an existing long-form master.
The first slate includes scripted dramas, reality formats and competition programming. That range will test whether vertical adaptation works primarily for plot-driven shows or can also extract usable story loops from unscripted libraries.
Snips currently has more than 250 titles available and plans to produce dozens of adaptations each week, eventually reaching thousands per year. That volume makes automation central to the model.
Manual editing could produce an individual vertical cut. AI makes catalog-scale adaptation economically possible.
A New Window Without a New Production
Traditional library monetization depends on selling an existing title into another territory, platform or period. The asset remains largely unchanged while the buyer receives a defined set of distribution rights.
Snips adds format transformation to that model. The underlying footage becomes a separate mobile experience with its own episode structure, release cadence, interface and monetization.
Banijay and BIG Media retain ownership and share in the platform revenue. That follows the wider shift toward transactions where the rights retained by each party become part of the economics.
The rights holders receive another revenue line and performance data without building a vertical platform. Snips gets recognizable programming without assuming the cost and risk of original production.
Snips is positioning itself exclusively as a platform for studio-owned work. That keeps its interests aligned with licensors whose participation supplies the catalog.
AI Makes the Catalog Economically Editable
A large content library creates value only when the owner can identify, clear, package and distribute the right material at an acceptable cost.
Banijay has hundreds of thousands of hours of programming. Human teams can’t manually review that entire archive every time a new platform, audience or format emerges. Automated indexing and editing make the footage addressable at a much smaller unit of value.
A distributor can move from licensing a full season to finding specific story arcs, characters, confrontations or reveals that work inside two-minute episodes. The commercial asset becomes the scene sequence rather than the original broadcast hour.
Snips’ approach takes that logic further by assembling those sequences into a complete vertical product. Each adaptation can generate its own viewing, conversion and retention data.
That data can feed back into catalog strategy. A supporting character that performs well in vertical clips may have franchise value. An older title that attracts younger mobile viewers may support a remake, sequel or new licensing campaign. A reality format with strong completion rates may travel better than its original ratings suggested.
Libraries Need Rights Data as Much as Footage
Scaling this model requires more than access to video files. Each title carries rights governing music, talent, territories, editing, marketing and distribution.
A long-form license doesn’t automatically answer every question created by a vertical adaptation. The new version changes duration, pacing, framing and episode structure. It may also reach audiences through a different business model or geographic footprint.
The operational bottleneck will sit in the data describing what can be used, where it can run and which approvals or payments apply. AI can identify a scene in seconds. The rights system still has to determine whether that scene can become part of a new commercial product.
That makes structured rights and metadata essential to the vertical opportunity. Catalog owners with clean records can move faster, test more titles and negotiate from a clearer understanding of what they control.
Vertical Adaptation Changes the Content Product
Microdrama apps already generate more daily mobile watch time per active user than several major subscription services. Their programming uses short episodes, rapid escalation and constant cliffhangers to create high-frequency viewing sessions.
Long-form TV follows a different rhythm. Scenes build across acts. Character development can take episodes. An hour of drama may contain only a handful of moments designed to produce immediate continuation.
Snips is betting that AI can find enough narrative momentum inside those titles to rebuild them for mobile behavior.
The performance results will show which libraries adapt cleanly. Reality competitions, thrillers and serialized dramas already contain frequent reveals and reversals. Slower character pieces may lose more of their value when compressed.
Title-by-title data gives rights holders a way to price that adaptability. Catalog value could eventually include a title’s suitability for vertical recutting alongside traditional considerations including cast, genre, territory and historical demand.
The Streaming Wars Take
Snips is turning vertical video into a new library window.
The model gives rights holders incremental revenue, mobile reach and behavioral data while preserving ownership. Snips receives recognizable programming and avoids the capital requirements of building an original-content pipeline.
AI makes the volume possible. Rights data determines how much of the library can participate. Audience response decides whether these adaptations become durable products or short-lived promotional assets.
Hollywood’s catalogs were built for schedules, channels and hour-long programming. Their next revenue stream may come from cutting the same stories into the two-minute cliffhangers filling the phone.
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