Todd Spangler

NY Digital Editor @ Variety

Fusion, the youth-skewing multiplatform news joint venture between Disney’s ABC News andUnivision Communications, next week will debut original docu-series “Outpost” on youth-skewing messaging service Snapchat.

“Outpost,” produced by Univision’s documentary unit, will cover “hidden worlds” in Latin America and the Caribbean, spanning such topics as illegal loggers in the Brazilian Amazon and indigenous kite-surfers in the Colombia’s Guajira region.

Series is slated to bow Feb. 25 on Snapchat, with new episodes following every Wednesday for the next seven weeks. In addition, Fusion has started to produce one-minute news updates, “News in a Snap,” on Snapchat, which is estimated to have more than 100 million active monthly users who are mostly millennials.

Fusion launched on the Snapchat Discover service in January, along with other media partners including ESPN, CNN, Yahoo News, Comedy Central, Warner Music Group and Vice Media. The content posted to Snapchat is available for 24 hours — then it vanishes.

“The premiere of ‘Outpost’ on Snapchat is just one example of how we are engaging with this young, diverse generation everywhere they consume content — from our television network and web platform to emerging social platforms,” Fusion CEO Isaac Lee said in a statement.

Other segments in the first season of “Outpost” will explore Honduras’s Mara gangsters and the mythology behind their tattoos, and follow a young tiger trainer on the road in Baja California.

Among its distribution deals, Fusion has agreements with pay-TV providers to carry its linear channel, including DirecTV, Dish Network, Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon FiOS and Google Fiber, as well as with over-the-top partners including Apple TV.

Check this out at Variety.com