Facebook’s upcoming online video service could be set to launch mid-August. The social media company has been rumored for some time now to be readying a new video service launching with a number of short videos in order to capture a younger audience. Now, though, it appears the company has started asking production partners for the first few episodes in order to get the service up and running by mid-August, which is reportedly two months late, with the service originally set to launch back in June.
In an interesting move, it appears the company will avoid competing directly with the likes of Netflix and HBO initially, with most videos commissioned lasting between 5 and 10 minutes. This will instead allow Facebook to better compete with YouTube, though not directly. Facebook will not be launching the service on a separate site. In fact, the new video service will simply appear as a new tab on the social media site, therefore separating videos from the news feed. Initially, content will be dominated by short videos, with these being the basis of a testing phase for the service. But once the service has grown in popularity, the online company is set to launch a number of longer-format videos, similar to regular TV shows, which they are currently investing into. Thanks to these, the company is hoping to attract a slightly more mature audience which, in combination with the shorter format videos, will give the service a wider range of users. Facebook is yet to show any interest when it comes to launching a subscription service and for now, at least, all revenue is expected to come from ads, of which 45% will be kept by Facebook itself.
Current content partners include Group Nine Media, BuzzFeed, ATTN and Vox Media, though these will be solely for short videos. Once the social media giant launches longer format videos, they will be the sole producer of content, meaning the ad revenue will no longer need to be split. With the service set to launch in as little as two weeks, the company is surely readying a big push in order to promote it to Facebook users. Once launched, though, customer feedback will likely be the basis of future content creation.