Facebook Watch Rolls Out Internationally

Source: Variety/Courtesy of Facebook

Facebook Watch, a video streaming service for episodic TV content that was first launched in the United States, will roll out internationally as of Thursday. Facebook announced its excitement in providing "a new distribution platform to our partners around the world." Watch was receiving over 50 million visitors in the United States every month and the total amount of time spent on the platform increased 14 times since the beginning of this year. Watch creators in New Zealand, Ireland, UK and Australia will be able to monetize their videos as of Thursday and 21 more countries will follow starting in September. 

Facebook released a statement saying that they will be helping content creators and publishers "make money from their videos on Facebook and better understand how their content is performing." The revenue split on the platform will be 45% to Facebook, and 55% to content creators. The threshold for monetization eligibility will be :

• Content Creators must create videos that last at least three-minutes long
  
• Content Creators must have at least 10,000 followers  
• Content Creators must have attracted at least 30,000 viewers who viewed content for more than one minute within the past two-months
• Content Creators must be in a location where ad breaks are available 

Although the Watch platform is often perceived as a competitor to Google's YouTube, it will also compete against other traditional TV networks and other online TV platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Video. Facebook claims that the Watch platform's advantage when compared to its competitors lies in the ways the platform helps Watch users interact, enabling non-passive video consumption. Users will be able to converse "with friends, other fans or even the creators themselves," said Fidji Simo, Facebook's VP of Video. The Watch platform will offer a Watch Party Feature (allows users to watch content together) and an Interactivity Platform, which will allow content creators to run quizzes, challenges and polls. 


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