Facebook Watch already has a considerable user base
The launch was only in the U.S. but even now it has over 50 million regular monthly viewers who watch at least one minute of video. Just since the beginning of 2018 the total time spent viewing videos has increased fourteen times.
Facebook is adding more features to Facebook Watch
Facebook has been adding new social features to Watch during 2018. This includes participatory experiences such as Watch Parties. There are also features such as Confetti with audience involvement built on the new game show pattern. There are also basic search tools, and tools for saving videos. A new tool also allows users to customize a feed of videos from the Facebook Pages they follow.
More content publishers will be able to add ads
Ads can be either mid-roll in the video or be placed before the video starts. They can also be below the video. The ads can be inserted by publishers themselves or Facebook has an automatic insertion tool. Facebook claims that 70 percent of mid-roll ads are actually viewed to completion.
Ad Breaks will be now offered to creators who publish three minute videos that glean more than 30,000 1 minute views in total during the last two months, who have at least 10,000 Facebook followers, and who meet other eligibility requirements such as being in a supported country.
Facebook claims: “Supported countries today include the U.S., UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Next month, that list will expand to include Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Thailand, supporting English content and other local languages. More countries and languages will then follow.”
Facebook Watch
This is Facebook’s video-on-demand service that was first announced on August 9 2017 and made available the next day. By the end of the month it was available to all US users. The original video content is produced by partners who receive 55 percent of ad revenue while Facebook keeps the other 45 percent.
Facebook Watch offers personalized recommendations for videos to watch. It also categorizes content bundles according to factors such popularity or social media engagement. It wants both short-form and long-form content on its platform.
It is reported to have a total budget of $1 billion for content through this year. For now the ads which bring in revenue from Facebook Watch are mid-roll but it will experiment with pre-roll ads as it is expanded this year.
In May and June of this year Facebook launched six news programs from partners. These include Buzzfeed, Vox, CNN, and Fox News. Head of news partnerships Campbell Brown developed these programs which reportedly have a budget of $90 million dollars.
The company said recently in an announcement:“Our goal is to provide publishers and creators with the tools they need to build a business on Facebook. Facebook’s Fostering an active, engaged community and sharing longer content that viewers seek out and regularly come back to are key to finding success”
