In November 2020, Dagbladet TV launched a new concept aimed at young viewers. The concept, called “Non Stop,” was created to energise viewers. The programme is within the genre of reaction TV, showing the most hysterical videos the world has to offer every day.

After four months, “Non Stop” has already become a huge success for Dagbladet TV. At the beginning of February, “Non Stop” set a new record with more than 800,000 started streams in one week. These are high numbers in a country like Norway, which has only 5.4 million inhabitants.

Viral traditions

The “Non Stop” concept is based on viral videos. The media industry has been running viral stories since the end of the 19th century. In the past, editors shared sensational stories with each other via letters, and several media would hardly have survived without this as part of their content offering.

Today, these stories are captured through the Internet. But if you want to succeed in creating engaging journalism related to these videos, you also have to succeed with concept and context. The super duo Sondre Rahm and Christian Wehus at Dagbladet TV therefore developed “Non Stop” with reaction TV as a format. Reaction TV is TV content where someone — preferably presenters — reacts and comments on content they watch. The format for “Non Stop” immediately became a great success among Dagbladet TV’s viewers.

Business model

“Non Stop” aims to contribute to high viewing figures and high stable income for Dagbladet TV. The main, clear income of “Non Stop” is based on pre-roll advertising before our content. This commercial content lasts between 15 and 30 seconds. Therefore, we believe we should have content that is at least 40 seconds.

But the content must not be too long. Mobile TV viewers are impatient, and the engagement curve drops the further over the minute mark you pass. The staff at “Non Stop” therefore works hard to create as effective a product as possible.

“Everyone does everything” attitude

The editorial staff behind “Non Stop” consists of four employees, and the attitude is that everyone does everything:

• They find the videos, do research, and write scripts.
• They do all the studio production themselves (lighting, sound, make-up, and recording).
• They cut the content, write titles, and create thumbnails.
• They analyse traffic and user behaviour to continuously improve the product.

Snapchat and a young audience

“Non Stop” also publishes on Snapchat. Each week, a separate Snapchat vertical is posted. This has been a useful investment for Dagbladet TV. At most, “Non Stop” has had more than one million users on a Snapchat episode, and the majority of these viewers have been younger than 35 years old.

The genre of reaction TV, in particular, began to spread on the Internet in 2007. Today, even linear TV stations have embraced the concept.

For Dagbladet, “Non Stop” has been a solid door opener for a young audience.

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