Yahoo Screen

Yahoo's video hub, home of the SNL archive, Community season six and a $42 million write-down, closed in January 2016

Shut down
19902026

Yahoo Screen was Yahoo's video service, launched on 4 October 2011 as the successor to Yahoo Video, which by 2013 hosted the Saturday Night Live archive, clips from Comedy Central and Vevo, live concerts and Yahoo's own originals, including the sixth season of Community in 2015 and the first NFL game streamed live to the world. Yahoo took a $42 million write-down on the originals in October 2015 and closed Screen on 4 January 2016.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2011
  2. 4 October 2011 Launch
    Yahoo Screen launches

    The successor to Yahoo Video.

  3. 2013
  4. 24 April 2013 Feature
    Exclusive Saturday Night Live archive

    38 years of sketches.

  5. 2015
  6. 17 March 2015 Feature
    Community season six premieres

    Yahoo's scripted originals arrive.

  7. 20 October 2015 Decline
    $42 million write-down on originals

    No more scripted shows.

  8. 25 October 2015 Feature
    First NFL game streamed live worldwide

    Bills against Jaguars from Wembley.

  9. 2016
  10. 4 January 2016 Shutdown
    Yahoo Screen shut down

    Content scattered across Yahoo sites.

  11. 8 August 2016 other
    Yahoo View launches

    A Hulu-powered replacement, closed in 2019.

The site through time

Browse screen.yahoo.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Yahoo 2011–2016 Founded

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: Yahoo confirmed on 4 January 2016 that Yahoo Screen had been shut down and its video moved into Yahoo's topic sites, Yahoo TV, News, Sports and so on. Three months earlier it had taken a $42 million write-down on its original programming, including Community's sixth season and the comedies Other Space and Sin City Saints, and its NFL live stream in October 2015 had been the last big event. Yahoo View, a Hulu-powered replacement, ran from August 2016 to 2019.

Our analysis: Yahoo Screen was Marissa Mayer's bid to make Yahoo a video destination without being YouTube: licensed archives, exclusive originals, live sport. Every piece was expensive and none of them made people come back to a Yahoo URL; the audience for Community watched it, and left. Yahoo's advertising business needed video inventory but could not fund television, and once the write-down was booked there was no case for a separate hub. It joined a long list of Yahoo brands folded back into the portal.

History [edit]

After Yahoo Video

Yahoo Video, a YouTube-style upload site, stopped accepting uploads in December 2010, and on 4 October 2011 Yahoo relaunched its video presence as Yahoo Screen: a hub for professionally made clips, web series and licensed television, with apps for phones, tablets and connected TVs. Under Marissa Mayer from 2012 it was given money and ambition. On 24 April 2013 Yahoo signed an exclusive deal for the Saturday Night Live back catalogue, 38 years of sketches; Comedy Central, Vevo, ABC News, Live Nation concerts and the Global Citizen festival followed, and Yahoo's own originals, from Katie Couric interviews to comedy shorts, filled it out.

The big swing was scripted television. In June 2014 Yahoo picked up Community for a sixth season after NBC cancelled it, and ordered Other Space (Paul Feig) and Sin City Saints; all three premiered on Screen in 2015. In October 2015 Yahoo streamed the Bills against the Jaguars from Wembley, the first NFL game broadcast globally over the internet, and reported 15 million viewers.

The write-down

Two weeks after the game, Yahoo announced a $42 million write-down on its three original series and said it would not commission more. Screen's traffic did not justify its costs, and on 4 January 2016 Yahoo confirmed to Variety that the service had been shut down over the holidays and its content redistributed across Yahoo TV, News, Sports and the rest of the portal. In August 2016 Yahoo launched Yahoo View, a Hulu-powered site for free network shows, when Hulu ended its own free tier; that too closed in 2019. The SNL archive went back to NBC.

The domain today

screen.yahoo.com redirects to video.yahoo.com, a clip search page.

Similar projects

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Sources [edit]

  1. Yahoo Video no longer accepts video uploads TechCrunch 15 December 2010 [archived]
  2. Yahoo signs exclusive deal for Saturday Night Live back catalog The Verge 24 April 2013 [archived]
  3. Yahoo Screen shuttered: video service hosted Community, NFL telecast Variety 4 January 2016 [archived]
  4. Yahoo kills off Screen video service less than four years after launch The Guardian 4 January 2016
  5. Yahoo yanks Yahoo Screen hub, scatters original content across sites Ars Technica 4 January 2016 [archived]
  6. Hulu ends free streaming service Variety 8 August 2016 [archived]

Last verified: 16 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).