Videos uploaded directly to Facebook are watched more than 4bn times a day according to the social network. Now it wants their uploaders to be able to make money from those videos.
The social network is testing a new “suggested videos” feature in its news feed, which will see videos from partner publishers and creators recommended to Facebook users, with advertisements running in between them.
According to Variety, Facebook will keep 45% of the revenues, with partners taking the other 55%. Fox Sports, the NBA, Hearst, Funny or Die and Tastemade are among the first partners in the trial, which is currently restricted to Facebook’s iPhone app.
“We’ve heard consistently from media companies and other video creators that if they were able to make money from their videos, they would publish more,” Facebook’s vice-president of partnerships Dan Rose told Variety.
It’s a big step forwards for Facebook, which behind the scenes has been encouraging media companies, YouTube multi-channel networks (MCNs) and individual celebrities to upload more videos directly to the social network, rather than just post links to YouTube videos.
While a number of these companies and creators have been experimenting with Facebook’s native video features, others have been cautious, on the grounds that they do not want to risk cannibalising their YouTube income until Facebook also has a way for them to make money directly from viewing.
If Facebook’s initiative is a success, the range of partners is wide: from traditional TV companies through to YouTube stars and MCNs, sports leagues and perhaps even music companies.
On the latter front, it seems unlikely to be a coincidence that as news broke of Facebook’s trial, The Verge was reporting that the social network is in “very early stages” of talks with major labels about expanding its music activities. Offering an ad-supported alternative to YouTube and Vevo for music videos would fit the bill.
Some companies may need more than the promise of advertising revenues to start uploading more videos to Facebook.
In early June the boss of MCN Fullscreen took Facebook to task for the regular appearance of his network’s videos on Facebook, uploaded by other parties without its permission.
“I love FB video but getting very tired of seeing our videos ripped there with no way to monitor or monetize,” tweeted George Strompolos.
“I now regularly see our videos with 50MM+ view counts that are stolen by individuals on FB... sometimes by other media cos... Frankly I’m shocked that a rights holder with deep pockets has not sued yet.”
YouTube has a system called Content ID to help companies identify when their copyrighted content is being used in user-uploaded videos, and then choose to either leave those videos alone, block them, or leave them up but make money from the advertising around them.
“YT’s content ID system is the right idea for FB, but it requires monetization (claiming) to keep content from being removed all the time,” wrote Strompolos.
With Facebook now putting monetisation in place, it may face pressure to also develop a system for identifying ripped videos.
