Social media giant Facebook has made a move into dedicated video, pitting it against YouTube and TV networks.<\/p>\n
Users will soon see a new Watch tab that will offer a range of shows, some of which have been funded by the social network<\/p>\n
Watch will be personalised so that users can discover new shows, based on what their friends are watching.<\/p>\n
Viewers will also be able to see comments and connect with friends and dedicated groups for shows.<\/p>\n
“Watching a show doesn’t have to be passive,” said the company’s founder Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
“It can be a chance to share an experience and bring people together who care about the same things.”<\/p>\n
Video has been available on Facebook for some time, but until now, it has mostly been dominated by amateur clips or short segments from news organisations.<\/p>\n
The world’s largest social network added a video tab last year, and has hinted for some time that it might make the move to producing original content.<\/p>\n
Watch could open up new revenue potential for both Facebook and programme makers, while users can expect to see targeted advertising before and during the shows.<\/p>\n
Crowded market<\/strong><\/p>\n Facebook is entering an increasingly complex and crowded market, and will face competition from traditional TV networks as well as other online services like YouTube and Netflix.<\/p>\n Disney yesterday announced that from 2019, it will scrap its existing deal with Netflix and create its own direct-to-consumer streaming-video services.<\/p>\n It will also set up a sports-themed ESPN streaming service next year.<\/p>\n Facebook already has content lined up, including Major League Baseball, Women’s basketball, parenting shows and a safari show from National Geographic.<\/p>\n According to Reuters news agency, it has also inked deals with millennial-oriented media groups Vox Media, BuzzFeed, ATTN, Group Nine Media and others to produce shows.<\/p>\n Watch will have a limited release in the US before it is rolled out more broadly.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Social media giant Facebook has made a move into dedicated video, pitting it against YouTube and TV networks. Users will soon see a new Watch tab that will offer a range of shows, some of which have been funded by the social network Watch will be personalised so that users can discover new shows, based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[339,3,284],"class_list":["post-343655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-facebook","tag-ghana-news","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=343655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=343655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}