Facebook Wants to Start Buying Original TV Content
There’s no one definition to “TV” anymore, considering half of our most-watched series are easily binged on a phone. Great shows can come from unorthodox places, and Facebook might be getting ready to stretch that definition further with its own line of original and scripted content.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Facebook has begun having discussions with video producers to create and license series with Facebook’s mobile-first video platform in mind. Says College Humor founder-turned Facebook global creative strategy head Ricky Van Veen of the effort:
Earlier this year, we started rolling out the Video tab, a dedicated place for video on Facebook. Our goal is to kickstart an ecosystem of partner content for the tab, so we’re exploring funding some seed video content, including original and licensed scripted, unscripted, and sports content, that takes advantage of mobile and the social interaction unique to Facebook. Our goal is to show people what is possible on the platform and learn as we continue to work with video partners around the world.
For the moment at least, Facebook isn’t disclosing which companies are involved in the effort, or what shows are under consideration for order. The initiative is similar to other platforms getting into the original content game, as we saw with YouTube.
We’ll keep an ear to the ground to learn what Facebook ends up moving forward on, but might any original programming add to the ever-expanding #PeakTV next year?