Facebook Makes a Play for the Living Room TV, Creating Video App
Facebook's efforts in video are going beyond the News Feed and landing on the living room television. In an effort to attract some of the TV advertising budget, Facebook is creating an app for set-top boxes including Apple TV, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Once the app is done, Facebook will stock it with original long-form programming it will either fund or acquire. Ricky Van Veen, the company's head of global creative strategy, is leading the initiative and working with media companies and online stars. Van Veen was previously a co-founder of College Humor.
The news that Facebook is developing long-form programming for TV viewing follows a report from last week that it's tweaking its news feed algorithm to emphasize longer videos and show more mid-roll ads. The WSJ says showing mid-roll ads is part of the company's TV app plans, as well. Facebook recently told advertisers that it's running out of places in the News Feed to place new ads, the Verge reports. The Verge adds that Facebook has asked media companies to create both sporting and scripted shows up to 10 minutes long in exchange for a licensing fee.
In a related move, Facebook has created a site for advertisers that compares how ads perform online, on TV, and in print. Called the marketing mix modeling tool, it's intended for cross-channel campaign planning.
Facebook responded to advertiser concerns that it doesn't provide access to detailed ad metrics by announcing agreements with Nielsen and ComScore. It's expanding its relationship with Nielsen to bring Nielsen's Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) product to 8 additional global markets for a total of 25. DAR lets advertisers measure the reach and performance of ads on desktops and mobile devices. Facebook is expanding the measurement is offers through ComScore to include in-target performance monitoring. Previously, it only offered viewability verification through ComScore.
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