Facebook is Talking About Expanding Its TV-like Service, Watch, Into a Rival To YouTube

Facebook is talking about expanding its TV-like service, Watch, into a rival to Google's YouTube by opening the platform to more individual creators, CNBC reports citing people familiar with the plans. From the report: This would increase the amount of long-form video content that Facebook can sell ads against, and could reverse a decline in the time users are spending on the site. Facebook wants to allow more people to create their own shows on Watch, according to three media agencies who asked they remain anonymous because the conversations are private. Instead of buying rights to these shows, however, Facebook wants to create a system where creators can upload their shows for free, then earn a cut of the revenue from ads placed on that content -- similar to how YouTube pays its online creators. Another source with knowledge of the situation said Facebook's ultimate goal is to create a sustainable ad-supported video platform, where it won't have to pay for the majority of content.

I wonder if FB will de-monetize...

[cayenne8]

....gun videos and more conservative speech related sites, much like YouTube does?

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[FunkSoulBrother]

Lol that anyone is seeing ads on YouTube to begin with

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[AHuxley]

The SJW will just work in the same way as they do in other areas of social media.
Report the account to gov. Derank so fewer people can find the trending the conversation. Ban links, comments. Stop funding.

Re:I wonder if FB will de-monetize...

[sl3xd]

The vlogger rants I've seen about YouTube monitization all stem from a sense of entitlement -- that they are "owed" something, just because they are popular. Popularity is good; it means more eyeballs, and that's kind of the point of advertising, isn't it?

Well... the source of money is the people buying the advertisement, and they have the right to vote with their wallet and pull their sponsorship from any given content creator.

Google is just the cashier.

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[AHuxley]

To put hours and years into a service that then demands a US party political ToS?
Users who make the "something" could have then voted with their creativity and found a more freedom supporting service.

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[sl3xd]

The service is not that relevant.

It’s the advertisers who pay the bills that ultimately decide. They are the ones who decide what the content is worth by sponsoring content they want their product to be associated with.

They don’t give a rat’s ass about “freedom,” they want to see a return on their advertising investment.

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[cayenne8]

Itâ(TM)s the advertisers who pay the bills that ultimately decide. They are the ones who decide what the content is worth by sponsoring content they want their product to be associated with.

But it doesn't appear to be direct action from the advertisers pulling the ads...it is YouTube doing a blanket decision "no ads at all for your channel" type thing or a lot of genres, that till now no one really had a problem with...

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[tlhIngan]

But it doesn't appear to be direct action from the advertisers pulling the ads...it is YouTube doing a blanket decision "no ads at all for your channel" type thing or a lot of genres, that till now no one really had a problem with...

Because YouTube has no advertisers for those genres at all. It's basically saying that if you're going to make a video about that (and you're free to - YouTube will continue to host those videos for free), they just can't pay you anything for it.

YouTube lost a lot of advertisers

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[cayenne8]

Because YouTube has no advertisers for those genres at all.

I have a very hard time believing this...there were a LOT of advertisers....I don't think the advertisers said "no"...I think YouTube said no.....

videos

[Anonymous Coward]

I already skip through most of my "friends" posts and they just take seconds to read. Why the hell would I want to watch a bunch of crappy video?

Yea.. right (just say no!)

[fred911]

" Facebook wants to create a system where creators can upload their shows for free," except for those of us who haven't or won't ever bookface.

  At least I can watch whatever I want without an account on YouTube that is operated by a company with a significantly higher level of trust.

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[SoftwareArtist]

I don't think they really get what makes YouTube popular. YouTube is all about making it easy to share videos. Facebook is all about locking you in and keeping you from ever navigating away from Facebook. When they start letting people without Facebook accounts view content, and when they let you embed videos into other web pages, then they might have a chance of making a YouTube competitor.

Hmmm

[dohzer]

I guess they've got to do something to halt the mass exodus.

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[Opportunist]

How can there be an exodus from a platform you can leave as easily as North Korea?

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[sheramil]

Is anyone else concerned that their business model seems to be combining the cloistered hot-house-force-grown stupidity of Facebook with the arrant toxicity of Youtube? My god, what's next? Hiroyuki starts a 4chan TV station?

Actually, I'd probably watch that.

When Facebook Says "Watch!" You Bloody Watch! =)

[dryriver]

Zuckerberg wants the best for you. In his heart of hearts he is like Steven Spielberg, you know? He makes movies, and YOU get to be the actor in those movies, by putting everything you do with people you know through Facebook's servers. This results in what we Hollywood insiders call a "script". Don't worry if you don't know what a script is. It is something that Movies come from, kind of like the whole business of where babies come from. Once Zuckerberg makes mone... er.... a film about you, YOU get to hav

Okay, show of hands:

[Chris Mattern]

How many even heard of Watch before this article? And how many have used YouTube today?

That's what I thought.

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[RightwingNutjob]

I Watched YouTube today. Oh...look at my Watch, it's dinner time. Watcha think I'm gonna cook today?

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[swell]

Everyone can use YouTube. Only members can see FB. If you want to make videos that are only seen by that (very select) group of clones you are welcome to (but only if you too are a member in good standing).

And once again, thought eludes everyone

[Voyager529]

"Facebook wants to allow more people to create their own shows on Watch"

There are some incredibly talented Youtube content creators, for sure. Making long form, multi-episode stories, however, takes a LOT of people, a LOT of effort, and a LOT of resources. My buddy Rob did some work on Star Trek Phase II before Paramount got all lawyered up. They had a team of dozens of people who got together a few times a year for video shoots - lighting, staging, rigging, cameras, editors, actors, costume designers...and all of that was based on scripts written and storyboards exchanged over the internet. It was a massive undertaking for dozens of people to do 2-4 times a year, for some very dedicated fans with industry experience and a framework to build on.

If Facebook thinks they'll be able to have user-generated content of any meaningful quality and monetize it on ad revenue, they're either starting Facebook Studios and handling the production on their end with users basically submitting basic scripts and maybe starring roles, or they're grossly overselling the number of people who can put together content with any level of efficacy in their spare time.

NO no no no no

[sit1963nz]

Facebook. ALL I want from you is the ability to keep in contact with friends and family. That is it, end of story.

I DON"T want my news from you
I DON'T want you to be eBay
I DON'T want you to be the weather
I DON'T want you always trying to get me to join groups
I DON'T always buggerizing around with my security, I want EVERYTHING by default to be me and MY friends only.
I DON'T want you suggesting people
I DON'T to be lied to where you say "your friend was interested in this" and its an advert and they w

If they are competitive...

[PhantomHarlock]

If they are competitive with the percentage of ad revenue that goes to the creators (about 50% on youtube) then I could see that being successful and I would participate. I am hoping that healthy competition continues to give creators what has honestly been the most democratized revenue sharing that media creators have ever seen.

Please no.

[sims 2]

People keep linking to stuff on facebook and then you click it and you have to login to facebook to see it.

They banned my account and I don't want another I didn't want the first one but there was no other way to login to a companies support forums.

Ban reason? Their real names policy I would have had to verify my name was really IKATE FACEBORK to get my account back.

After YT's recent shafting of content creators

[John Stock]

After YouTube's recent shafting of small content creators using monetisation with fairly high subscriber and view thresholds, I would jump on this in a heartbeat.