TikTok's Tim Edwards Talks Long Form Content, Monetization and the Power of Search By Jo Ruddock, SVG Europe
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 - 2:22 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
How to create, share and monetize content on social media was discussed in depth at today's (23 May) Create Share Engage, with Tim Edwards, sports lead - UK and Nordics, TikTok, providing insight into how the platform is used to attract and engage viewers, and the monetization opportunities available. Edwards revealed that TikTok is opened, on average, 21 times a day by its 1 billion active monthly users worldwide. While there are no hard and fast rules around which content performs particularly well on the platform, and Edwards was keen to encourage people to experiment, behind the scenes videos and those that are athlete-led continue to dominate in the world of sport.
He highlights people looking to find out about debunking sports topics, so education, education around certain sports, finding out about certain athletes or tips about how to do certain sports as particularly popular content.
The popularity of this type of content has driven recent developments at TikTok where the focus has been on search. There's also been growth in users watching longer form content.
As TikTok is seen as a source for different kinds of content, that's been the big driver behind search being a really, really big driver of content discovery, rather than just the For You feed, he adds.
He continued: Long form has been a big growth area for us within the last six to eight months. Our users' expectations, and our expectations really, about what length of video users are comfortable coming to TikTok and watching is massively changing. Over a minute plus is the fastest area of content growth for us. So yes, we are still the place where you might watch the same video 20 times, but we're also the place where you might watch a one minute video, a two minute video, or even more than that. And you might watch that once, but what that brings to you in terms of longer term engagement and retention onto your account delivers very different upsides.
Our users' expectations, and our expectations really, about what length of video users are comfortable coming to TikTok and watching is massively changing
Indeed, users, on average are now watching over 90 minutes of content on the app per day. When it comes to sport, younger users are watching more than three hours of non-broadcast, non-highlight sports content per week.
So, for those looking to tap into that highly engaged market, what tips would Edwards offer?
Really interrogate and break down everything that might be different about your sport, everything that the players might do in a day, everything that might happen on a trip away, for example, he advises. For someone who doesn't fully understand your sport that will probably be something that they don't know. And so think about those and how it can be a hook.
Of course, TikTok isn't a rightsholder so how does it navigate those relationships and add value to those who have paid for rights?
We're always working with broadcasters and rightsholders to maximise the value of those rights and to find a different audience to what they might get within the traditional broadcast. But also if you're taking something like archive, it can also help keep your brand alive, if there's a really large gap between events, he added.
He cites the International Paralympic Committee, which has been a top performing sport account globally in the last few years, all driven by archive footage.
Of course, reaching new audiences and keeping them engaged between events is crucial, but how to monetise that content is still proving tricky. Edwards shared a couple of developments at TikTok that aim to improve this situation.
We've got a lot of different monetisation options that exist for different types of accounts and we are always at any given time testing a lot of different monetisation options for types of accounts worldwide.
He gave the example of Live Gifting and the recently launched TikTok Shop.
TikTok Shop is a really fast-growing area, both in terms of content and in terms of new ways of adoption of commerce. That's definitely an area where you can merge that trending content on TikTok and also make a purchase as well, he said.
The company has also recently announced its Pulse Premier scheme, which is being gradually rolled out for accounts including Sky Sports, BBC Studios and Channel 4, which gives advertisers the opportunity to buy ad space in front of their content.
For those partners, that's also a revenue opportunity that is being launched very carefully. But we're really excited about the long-term potential of that.
He concluded: I think if you are a broadcaster, a brand, rightsholder, team or athlete, and you're looking at what you have across the year, and through your social media content you're trying to grow your audience online and really achieve virality, I think all the audience would point to the fact that TikTok is the place where that's most likely to happen these days.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
02/06/2026
blueCORE standalone processors headline solutions designed to simplify the trans...
02/06/2026
If you've kept up with this article series, you know by now where to start w...
02/06/2026
With new DSP configurations and flexible licensing options, Calrec is removing the barriers to virtualised audio, giving broadcasters the freedom to scale produ...
02/06/2026
The TV agency was one of the earliest adopters of Nielsen's local television...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Grass Valley today announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP to transform its newsroom produc...
02/06/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, announces its new Model 385 Mic/Intercom Beltpack. The Mode...
02/06/2026
The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 2...
02/06/2026
More signals, higher quality, and outstanding ingest and streaming flexibility deliver professional results in a small, all-in-one footprint...
02/06/2026
farmerswife will be featured on the Modena Media & Entertainment stand at this year's Mediatech Africa 2026, giving visitors an opportunity to explore the l...
02/06/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17 19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Trust has become a commercial issue With global advertising spend forecast to exceed US$1 trillion this year*, the commercial consequences of weak governance co...
02/06/2026
June sees Ireland's cultural calendar in full bloom, as RT Supporting the Arts showcases a vibrant and wide-ranging programme spanning music, theatre, visu...
02/06/2026
After The Traitors Ireland launched in 2025, Irish audiences proved to have a taste for the global hit reality show. This Bank Holiday Monday fans can indulge e...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Luxembourg, June 1, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, launched fast and reliable multi-orbit satelli...
01/06/2026
Agentic AI is getting physical.
At COMPUTEX on Tuesday, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA JetPack 7.2 and NVIDIA NemoClaw support on NVIDIA Jetson.
JetPack 7.2 brings a...
01/06/2026
Financial institutions have spent years building AI: fraud models, credit models...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
TikTok's Tim Edwards Talks Long Form Content, Monetization and the Power of Search By Jo Ruddock, SVG Europe 
