The head of Facebook’s media partnerships says enthusiasm to work with the social media company is increasing dramatically.
“For the first time we actually have a robust video product that is live and we haven’t had that before,” Patrick Walker told the Broadcasting Press Guild in London. He added that monetisation through ad breaks was new to markets outside the United States, UK, France and Germany. Since August this has been available in 35 countries and such was the interest that new hires were planned.
Earlier this month Facebook launched Confetti, a daily game show from Thames, the company that produces X Factor. It plays at 1.30 GMT daily with a prize of £10,000. “It’s a really good example of interactive programming and how the funding we’re providing makes it possible and de-risks the first go for shows like this where partners may not see the economics up front,” explained Walker. “We also want people to be really committed to a Facebook show experience. The platform they’ll be using is a platform that we’ll then be offering out to others who may want to create game show type shows”.
Confetti is the first Facebook Watch show to be made outside of North America.
Walker said that in most countries the vast majority of consumption was on mobile with vertical video becoming very prominent. News shows made by CNN and ABC in the United States are shot for vertical video as is the Instagram Video app. “If you think about how young people consume video and the mass expansion of stories, Facebook video, Instagram video, it’s all vertical. So people are becoming used to filming this way, watching TV. Just when you thought it was safe to commit to a 16:9 world it’s all vertical.”
