Facebook’s dedicated TV app for various living room platforms, including Android TV, will reportedly begin showing eSports and gaming videos on June 10. The update will be coming to Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Samsung Smart TV platforms. There are no details on exactly what kind of content will be hosted at this time, but the content is unlikely to be very different from what one would find when searching Facebook for gaming videos. Various results from around the web, such as game trailers and esports event highlights can be found on the main Facebook site when searching for gaming video content. While it’s unlikely to surpass the likes of Twitch or the YouTube Gaming app, it will probably be a more easily digestable option for couch viewing than searching the normal YouTube app or finding and reading esports and gaming coverage in a browser.
Facebook made its initial push into the living room with the option to stream videos from its mobile app to certain smart TV platforms and Chromecast a while back, which it followed up by creating a dedicated video app for TV platforms. The app has not achieved total saturation of available platforms, with no support for Roku or LG’s WebOS, among others. The support on offer, however, does cover a wide swath of customer bases across the most popular smart TV platforms. The app’s most recent conquest was a jump onto Samsung’s smart TV platform back in February.
This latest change is part of a long line of efforts by Facebook to make its video options more ubiquitous. While Facebook may not have the upper hand in sheer content volume or specialized content when it comes to video, the service does have more unique content from its vast user pool, and has the advantage of aggregating content from around the web and acting as a portal. Facebook is looking to net exclusive, original content in the near future, though; it is reportedly working on original, premium shows in the vein of original content from competitors like Netflix and YouTube Red. Facebook has also worked on tweaking advertising in videos on its platform, and even taken steps to help video creators protect their ad revenue streams from stolen content. With these changes and ongoing work, Facebook is well on its way to becoming a consummate video platform on par with dedicated options that have been in the space longer.