Facebook has announced that its’ video platform, Watch, will be debuting a slate of new shows next week, on July 16. This new round of content will include shows from popular networks like ATTN:, CNN, Fox News, Mic, Quartz, Bloomberg and Univision. Facebook is looking to add a mix of local, national and social publishers, this way it has something for everyone to enjoy. Facebook says that by the end of the summer, it’ll have around 20 different news partners, for the push of Watch. Facebook Watch will have these shows in a dedicated news section on the site, so that you are able to watch them when you like, and it will be personalized to the users’ tastes. Facebook explains that the personalization will be based off of the publishers a user follows, and what their friends are watching.
Facebook Watch isn’t actually new for the social media platform, it has been around for quite some time, though it hasn’t gotten a big push just yet. That is about to change next week, though when Facebook launches these new shows. Facebook Watch is the way that Facebook plans to compete with bigger video platforms like YouTube, being able to pull in more content from big names like CNN and Fox News, especially around the elections later this year, should also help Facebook bring in more eyeballs. The thought process here is the fact that people are already spending a ton of time on Facebook, and seeing this content there will get them to spend more time, while watching video and showing them video ads that bring in more revenue for the company.
It is reported that Facebook is financing these news shows on its new Watch program, which is why bigger news organizations like CNN, Fox News and Bloomberg have agreed to be part of the launch. Seeing as they are all on YouTube already and users will watch clips all day long of their biggest stories of the day and get ads revenue from Google. Not to mention the deal that Bloomberg has with Twitter. It’ll be interesting to see how this fairs for Facebook in the future though.