Instagram lets you watch videos by topic

Instagram is making it easier to watch video events as they unfold around the world, adding to the crowd of apps that are pressuring traditional TV broadcast with their news streams.

The Facebook-owned company is adding a new events video channel to its Explore tab, so “you’ll be able to experience events you might like as they happen around the world,” says the company.

However, you won't be able to see live video of news events, like on Twitter's Periscope app or Facebook's Live feature.

Instead the event channels are triggered around events where people are uploading video from the same location during the time of the event. To trigger an event, there have to be a certain number of videos produced within those constraints.

The Periscope app, and Facebook’s Live feature were both used heavily during the recent attempted coup in Turkey, and in a showdown between the Republicans and Democrats at the House of Representatives, when the TV cameras were shut off. The home page of Periscope shows a map of the world, and pins to identify where live streams are coming in from.

The channel collects “the best videos from concerts, sporting events,” and more, says Instagram. “When one of your favorite artists has a concert in another city, you can come to Explore and watch videos of the show as it happens.”

One musical artist seen on Instagram Wednesday--singer Adele. The new channel will only be available in the United States at first.

What you see will depend on who you follow on Instagram. If you follow a lot of musical bands, for instance, you'll see their clips.

Instagram has seemingly been looking to rivals for inspiration often recently. Just last week it introduced the "Stories" feature, similar to Snapchat Stories, which lets users share a collection of photos and videos with specific friends that will expire within 24 hours.

Snapchat says it has 100 million daily users, and that they watch some 10 billion videos daily. Instagram is one of the most popular photo-sharing apps, with 500 million monthly active users, and 300 million daily users. The company says that 80% of Instagram's audience base is outside the United States.

In April Instagram added an updated "Explore" tab for finding posted videos, including a personalized channel that pulls suggested videos based on your interests.

Follow Paste BN's Jefferson Graham on Twitter, @jeffersongraham.