Facebook Watch takes on the world

August 31, 2018

Facebook Watch, the video-on-demand service, is launching globally after previously only being available in the US. The video destination proved to be somewhat of a success in the US. According to the head of video at Facebook, Fidji Simo, the time spent watching videos has increased by 14 times since the beginning of 2018, and the platform now has over 50 million monthly viewers. The new global expansion offers new opportunities for creators and publishers as they could now reach millions of new people across different countries.

The service features various millennial-focused news outlets such as BuzzFeed, CNN, Vox and Fox News, as well as sports, reality shows and docuseries. It also has Facebook Watch ‘originals’, similar to Netflix’s offering.

Facebook have also taken their most common feedback into consideration and introduced new ways for creators to include and profit from ad breaks. This being said, there are quite a few criteria creators have to meet in order to be able to include ads.

Have at least 10,000 followers
They must have created video longer than 3 minutes
Have attracted more than 30,000 video views lasting more than 1 minute in the past two months

Facebook’s bid to take on YouTube and Netflix with original shows and live programmes will be an interesting one to see develop. If the success in the US is anything to go by, we can expect a similar conclusion globally, and the addition of ad breaks will certainly provide a significant boost to Facebook’s video monetisation tools. There’s no doubt that social-focused channels and platforms will continue to compete with traditional TV offerings.

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