• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 8, 2023

Short-form video giant TikTok is launching a paywalled 20-minute video feature called Series.

TikTok described the new long-form format as another way to generate revenue for creators, who will be able to charge anywhere from 99 cents to $189.99 for the content.

But it also represents a ramping up of the already intense competition between TikTok and YouTube, in particular, which has dominated long-form videos but took on TikTok by launching YouTube Shorts in August 2021.

Each Series can include up to 80 videos that can each be up to 20 minutes in length.

The format is for now being made available only to “select” creators, but TikTok says it will start taking applications for it in “coming months.”

Meanwhile, TikTok says it will continue to monitor feedback from users about the feature.

TikTok stressed that all Series content will be required to adhere to its guidelines.

Last week, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced legislation that would give President Biden the authority to ban TikTok entirely in the U.S.

And on Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John Thune (R-S.D.), with a bipartisan group of co-sponsors, introduced a bill that would establish a risk-based process for the U.S. Department of Commerce to "identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, and mitigate" foreign threat to U.S. information and communications technology.

Warner, who chairs the Select Committee on Intelligence, has stated that TikTok is one of the platforms and companies likely to be scrutinized under those procedures.

“We need a comprehensive, risk-based approach that proactively tackles sources of potentially dangerous technology before they gain a foothold in America, so we aren’t playing Whac-A-Mole and scrambling to catch up once they’re already ubiquitous,” Warner stated in the announcement of the bill’s introduction.