For the many digital publishers who have been shifting their focus to video content, Facebook’s new “Watch” video platform is a sight for sore eyes. Facebook, with its 2 billion users, is open for business, joining rival YouTube. And it is taking the risk out of the content-creation endeavor for many publishers, either by paying to offset their production costs or offering to license or buy their content outright, people familiar with the arrangements say.
With Facebook’s much-anticipated announcement of its Watch product, the social media giant is moving into TV-like content with the creation of a video tab that it hopes will become a habit for its users. With Watch, Facebook essentially creates a video hub to make it easier for consumers to discover and organize videos on its platform.
Facebook continues to ramp up its original content with Watch, a platform introduced Wednesday for shows — a new type of shortform video on the social media juggernaut. Mark Zuckerberg’s company calls it a platform for all creators and publishers to find an audience, build a community of fans and earn money for their work.
The networks tells its affils that it wants to work with them in developing an ABC TV everywhere service that allows cable and satellite subscribers to watch on mobile devices. Each affiliate would be able to offer a locally branded service within its market. ABC would charge affiliates for the programming rights, but they could recoup those fees and perhaps make a profit by charging operators as they do for retransmission consent.
