Facebook

On average, publishers are posting 65% more video in this year’s second quarter vs. 1Q, based on those who were active in both quarters, as they look to drive engagement and revenue. Engagement metrics are way up — except when it comes to “likes.”

Facebook is working on a new tool that could help drive subscriptions to news organizations that publish articles directly on the online service, an effort to improve the fraught relationship between the social giant and media companies. The tool would be added to Facebook’s Instant Articles product, which allows publishers to post news articles that can be read within Facebook rather than on the publisher’s website.

Siding against Facebook, a federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Facebook over allegations of inflated video metrics. U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson in the Northern District of California ruled late last week that a group of six marketers can proceed with claims that the social networking platform violated an implied contractual obligation to use “reasonable care.”

Around the country, a small sample of mobile users can expect to start seeing ads in their Marketplace product feeds. While Facebook isn’t describing the ads as “native,” they do bear a strong resemblance to the product listings that users scroll through.

The social media company is developing plan that would allow publishers like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to get paid for content posted to Facebook just as they do when it’s on their on sites, according to sources.Publishers would also have access to subscriber data and full control over pricing.

It used to be that YouTube was the only place where you could put on a show and make yourself an online star. Not anymore. Even established talent now sees Facebook as a viable, if not superior, outlet.

Facebook is building a standalone app that incorporates ideas from Houseparty, the group video chat app that rose from the ashes of Meerkat. The app, which has the working name Bonfire, was recently demonstrated for employees. It is being targeted for a fall release, according to a person familiar with the matter. “We don’t have anything to share at this time,” a Facebook spokeswoman said.

Facebook and YouTube is killing it in the arms race for live-streaming dominance, which should have traditional TV companies worried. Nearly half of online users watch live-streaming every week and nearly a quarter say they watch live-streaming every day.

It’s official: Facebook now has two billion monthly users. In other words, more than 25 percent of the entire world’s population uses Facebook every month. Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are no doubt already thinking about hitting three billion users, but the path to that number promises to be much, much harder.

Facebook will stream more than a dozen matches from European soccer’s top tournament, the highest-profile event to join the small but growing lineup of live sports programming. Starting in September, the social network will show live Champions League matches in the U.S. through a partnership with Fox Sports. The deal with the sports division of 21st Century Fox includes double-headers during the group stage, four Round of 16 games and four quarterfinal matches.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook is talking to Hollywood studios and agencies about producing TV-quality shows with an eye toward launching original programming by late summer, people familiar with the matter say. In meetings with major talent agencies including Creative Artists Agency, United Talent Agency, William Morris Endeavor and ICM Partners, Facebook has indicated it is willing to commit to production budgets as high as $3 million per episode, people familiar with the situation say. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.

News outlets are complaining about Facebook’s terms for TV-quality videos meant to compete with YouTube.

Under pressure from governments to counter inappropriate content, the social media company will pair new technology with human moderators.

The Fox O&O in San Francisco posted a disturbing story about a preserved child found in a small glass, cast-iron casket from the 1870’s at San Francisco’s Odd Fellows Cemetery. The story was posted on the station site and social platforms. It was also shared across the Fox Television Stations group. It has since received an overall reach of 16.3 million on Facebook and 1.1 million article views on the station’s website.

Facebook is pressing a judge to dismiss claims by marketers who are suing the company over inflated video metrics.

A new Borrell report Gauging Facebook’s Impact on Local Advertising, estimates that by year’s end, the social media giant will be capturing as much as 10% of all local ad dollars in the U.S., more than the newspaper, TV or radio industries. Attendees of TVNewsCheck’s “Optimize, Monetize Your Facebook Strategy” webinar on June 13 will receive a free copy of the $995 report.

Readying for our June 13 webinar on optimizing and monetizing Facebook, it’s clear to me that legacy media’s relationship with the social media platform evolves daily. But for media, migrating users out of Facebook’s walled garden remains a priority.

Facebook is testing a new tool designed to help media companies sell video advertising on their own websites, apps and other digital properties in a more automated fashion, the company said Tuesday.

Jason White, Facebook’s manager of U.S. news partnerships, is part of a C-level executive lineup that also features Graham Media’s Emily Barr, Raycom’s Pat LaPlatney and the Dallas Morning News’ Jim Moroney III. They will discuss the challenges of maintaining brand identity, monetizing and migrating audiences from Facebook back to media’s owned and operated platforms during a TVNewsCheck webinar: “Optimize, Monetize Your Facebook Strategy.” It’s set for Tuesday, June 13, at 2 p.m. ET.

As part of its ongoing push to build relationships with local publishers, Facebook is testing products that can help people better connect with local news. Those tests, part of the Facebook Journalism Project, have just begun, but they’re all aimed at helping people discover and engage with news outlets in their communities.

Facebook has struck a deal with Major League Baseball to show 20 of the league’s games live this season in an agreement that expands the social media network further into the world of live programming. Facebook said Thursday that it would stream one game a week beginning on Friday, and the broadcasts would be available to everyone on Facebook in the United States.

The biggest players in tech want a crack at disrupting TV advertising. Amazon and Google are taking a more direct approach by paying to control some TV ad space. Facebook is looking to partner and moving more deliberately. That means Facebook is likely to face resistance from the ad industry, which could put it behind the other players.

Amid this year’s TV upfront hustle to lock down billions in ad-spending commitments, expect networks to more aggressively pitch Madison Avenue buyers on branded-content campaigns — which have exploded across social media during the current TV season.

LONDON (AP) — Facebook says it has deleted tens of thousands of accounts in Britain ahead of the June 8 general election in a drive to battle fake news. The […]

Modern marketers face the struggle of ever-fragmenting ways of getting in front of consumers. Television needs to accept that reality. Its advertisers need to use it in concert with other platforms, particularly social, and that will inevitably siphon off some of its advertising revenue. But TV still has the power to play that orchestrating role if it’s not too belligerent or myopic to pick up the baton.

Looking to curtail Facebook and Google’s competitive advantage in people-based marketing, global ad-tech companies have set up a consortium to make targeting technologies available through a wide range of channels. The initial group of companies in the consortium include AppNexus, LiveRamp, MediaMath, Index Exchange, LiveIntent, OpenX and Rocket Fuel.

The hires over the next year will be on top of the 4,500 people Facebook already has to identify crime and other questionable content for removal. Videos and posts that glorify violence are against Facebook’s rules, but Facebook has been criticized for being slow in responding to such content, including live videos of a murder in Cleveland and a killing of a baby in Thailand.

Google’s pain may be Rupert Murdoch’s gain. Murdoch’s News Corp. is introducing a new service to ensure online ads don’t appear next to fake news or offensive videos, marking the latest salvo in the billionaire media mogul’s long battle with the world’s biggest search engine. News Corp.’s Storyful unit, which filters through the firehose of social media for publishers and brands, will track websites known as purveyors of fake news or extremist content and share that list with advertisers, who can use it to keep ads from appearing in controversial places.

The company has promoted Alex Hardiman, formerly of the New York Times, to its new head of news products role. The job means Hardiman will work with publishers to create news features, and also try to stop the proliferation of false news on the service.

The main takeaway from Facebook’s F8 developer conference was that the social media giant is making big bets on augmented and virtual reality. Worldwide revenues for the augmented reality and virtual reality market are projected to approach $14 billion in 2017. But that’s forecast to explode to $143 billion by 2020. But Facebook is hardly the only company making big AR/VR plays.

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is acknowledging that governments or other malicious non-state actors are using its social network to sway political sentiment, including elections. That’s a long way from […]