If you’re not posting as many status updates nowadays, Facebook is hoping it can at least persuade you to open the app and watch some TV. Perhaps even pay for some.
2018 has been a busy year for Facebook’s still-nascent efforts around streaming original programming a la Netflix, which is another way of saying the social networking giant’s still got an extended way to go before it’s seen as having the identical cachet as its much more established streaming competitors. even so, Facebook is pressing on, with a slew of new headlines around its Facebook Watch service that even include the chance of Facebook selling you an HBO package that you could watch through the app.
The company has additionally just released a slew of updated stats and viewership figures, in addition to announcing some series renewals and other major efforts on the horizon. For starters, Facebook says over seventy five million individuals daily and upwards of four hundred million people a month currently watch at least one minute of Facebook Watch content each day. And that, on average, those seventy five million daily viewers spend more than twenty minutes inside the Watch tab.
That’s a little vague around what people are actually watching, of course. Once you jump into the Watch tab after opening the mobile Facebook app, as an example, you’re presented not just with Facebook original shows to look at however also videos that are uploaded from Facebook pages you follow. However that’s not to say Facebook doesn’t have a top quality selection of original content of its own to binge inside Facebook Watch. The social network is apparently seeing enough engagement that it’s just announced season two renewals for four Watch shows: Five Points, Sacred Lies, Huda Boss and Sorry for Your Loss, the latter earning an impressive ninety six score on Rotten Potatoes and starring Elizabeth Olsen in a very strong drama that deals with loss, grief and moving on.
In case you missed it, Facebook is also currently streaming Joss Whedon shows Buffy the vampire slayer, Angel and Firefly inside Watch, too. It might sound sort of a random option to ink a deal for those, until you stop to remember that Joss’ shows have usually had extraordinarily strong and engaged fan communities around them.
As we mentioned earlier, Facebook is additionally eyeing another potential moneymaker via watch. From recode : Facebook is readying its biggest move into video to date: It desires to sell consumers subscriptions to cable TV networks like HBO and hopes they’ll watch those networks on its own apps.
“The social network is talking to pay TV channels including HBO, ShowTime and Starz about a proposal to sell those companies’ streaming TV services on Facebook. Consumers who subscribed to the channels could watch them on Facebook’s own properties — mostly likely via Facebook’s ‘Watch’ hub — however could conjointly likely view them on alternative platforms and devices, like Roku TVs.”
Among other news, Facebook in August rolled out the Watch platform globally on mobile, and on Thursday the corporate declared that Watch is currently available around the world on desktop and via Facebook lite.
“We know that in the age of ‘peak TV,’ merely being entertaining or having high production values isn’t good enough,” Facebook head of video Fidji Simo aforesaid in accompany blog post. “A show needs to strike a chord within the broader cultural zeitgeist or serve a group of passionate people that wish something they can’t get elsewhere. That ‘something’ could come in the shape of a personal connection with the talent, or content that covers a niche subject material. With shows on Facebook, those personal connections are possible, and those fan bases are often already well-formed and accessible on the platform. This is the lens we use once funding original series and the recommendation we give partners looking to make engaging content.”