Facebook Watch Goes Global After Building U.S. Audience of 13M Daily Viewers

daniel.frankel@futurenet.com (Daniel Frankel) — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 17:43:32 +0000

After building a deceptively large U.S. audience, Facebook Watch is going global.

The social media giant with the $500 billion market valuation said in a blog post that it will make its Watch platform available worldwide effective Thursday.

“Every month, more than 50 million people in the U.S. come to watch videos for at least a minute in Watch—and total time spent watching videos in Watch has increased by 14X since the start of 2018,” wrote Fidjo Simo, head of video for Facebook, in a blog post.

Last week, research company The Diffusion Group noted that nearly 74% of Facebook’s U.S. audience doesn’t consume the original video platform, and that 50% of the social media’s users haven’t even heard of it.

Only 6% of Facebook’s U.S. users consume video daily on Watch, TDG said, and only 8% access Watch on a weekly basis.

Of course, when you’re dealing with the kind of audience scale Facebook enjoys, the glass could also be interpreted as 6%-8% full for the Watch, which programs a combination of entertainment, news and sports, ranging from Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith, to reality show Ball in the Family, to Major League Baseball games.

Given Facebook’s U.S. user base is pegged at around 214 million, 6% of that audience would be close to 13 million daily users—a seriously good first-year audience performance, any way you slice it.

Simo said Facebook would continue to fine-tune Watch, while taking its existing programming slate international and including subtitles where needed.

He said Facebook will expand its Ad Breaks monetization program, which currently includes mid-roll and pre-roll ad formats, as well as image ads directly below the video. This allows creators to earn a share of ad revenue generated by their videos.

“Taking Watch global also means new opportunities for creators and publishers around the world,” Simo added. “We’re expanding our Ad Breaks program so more partners can make money from their videos, and we’re offering new insights, tools and best practices for Pages in Creator Studio.”

Pop To Take Digital Tumble with Tumblr

MCN Staff — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:15:00 +0000

When Pop rebrands from TVGN in the new year, it will be making the digital transition to the Tumblr social platform.

Pop’s new site -- poptv.com -- will go live on Wednesday, Jan. 14 to coincide with Pop’s on-air launch of the new network, at which point officials say it will become the first television network to use Tumblr, which counts some 150 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S., as its primay digital outlet.

The website will reflect Pop’s brand and new original programming, serving as the network’s official online destination and creating shareable content on the things popping in fan culture. poptv.com will fuse the sharing features available through Tumblr platforms with the traditional website assets, ensuring that TV network site staples, such as channel finders and programming schedules, are blended with shareable GIFs, memes, and such user-generated content such as fan art.

The joint venture of CBS Corp,. and movie studio Lionsgate, will trade as a fan-focused channel, sporting a new on-air look and a slate of programming feature former boy band New Kids on the Block and former Growing Pains star Alan Thicke

“Pop’s target audience are modern grown-ups with a fan-at-heart sensibility who are inherently social and want to soak up more out of the entertainment experiences they’re hooked on,” said Brad Schwartz, president, Entertainment and Media, Pop. “We know that this audience is highly engaged when expressing their fandom and sharing their passions with other fans—and we know they are doing that on Tumblr. Working with Tumblr to launch a digital destination for Pop is a perfect opportunity for our target audience to discover, enjoy and share the fan-fueled content launching on our network in the New Year.”

Noted Tumblr head of media Sima Sistani: "Our collaboration with Pop is a perfect way to connect television fans on Tumblr directly to both the network and the shows. The future of television marketing is all about engaging with your fan community 24/7, not just during the broadcast window. Pop is positioning itself to lead that evolution with an always-on strategy through Tumblr, a distinctive online destination that is instantly social."

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Facebook Watch Goes Global After Building U.S. Audience of 13M Daily Viewers

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