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UPDATE 10/22: Chick-fil-A has officially announced the launch of its new entertainment app, Chick-fil-A Play, which will be available for download starting Nov. 18.
The family-friendly app features original animated shows and scripted kid-friendly podcasts alongside games, jokes, video-based recipes, craft guides, and e-books. It's free and is intended to be a "digital extension of the ...Chick-fil-A family experience," the brand says.
Original Story 8/22:
Chick-fil-A is adding a new item to its menu: entertainment.
The fast food chain plans to launch a streaming service later this year, Deadline reports. Its family-friendly lineup will focus on reality TV—including game shows—which has traditionally been cheaper to produce than scripted content. However, original shows and animation may also be on the table. A formal name and pricing have not been revealed.
This is not the brand's first foray into filmmaking. As Deadline notes, Chick-fil-A has produced short films for its website. The fifth installment of its Stories of Evergreen Hill series, for example, debuted last November and "follows a young girl named Sam as she discovers how little acts of kindness can bring people together." The Evergreen Hills site currently produces a 404, though, so we'll have to wait for more heartwarming tales of nuggets and friendship.
Custom content from brands is also not new. Lyft and Airbnb produced a game show and a documentary, respectively, Deadline notes. And, of course, major tech companies like Amazon and Apple have their own high-profile streaming services. They have largely produced award-winning prestige content, though we naturally see a lot of iPhones and iPads in the Apple shows (and Apple reportedly nixed Jon Stewart's show over topics that could have hurt its business).
Fast food and streaming are a natural combination, though, as we've seen with DoorDash's recent partnership with Max to add the streaming service to its DashPass subscription. Amazon made a similar deal to include a Grubhub+ as a benefit of its Prime subscription.