Facebook is kicking Facebook Live into high gear and giving its newly launched live streaming platform some high-quality content.
The social media site has signed a string of deals with about 140 celebrities and media companies to produce videos for Facebook Live. This could give the team more time to chart the trajectory of the platform before it explores the option of profit-sharing.
Live streaming is among the company's biggest projects this year in the hope of keeping its audience base of 1.65 billion users interested in the platform.
Facebook Live To Feature Established Names In Media
The deals involve established brands in the worlds of broadcasting and publishing, including the New York Times, CNN, Huffington Post and Mashable, and celebrities such as Gordon Ramsay and Deepak Chopra, according to The Wall Street Journal.
BuzzFeed, however, takes home the biggest contract for a one-year broadcasting stint until March 2017.
The content creators will be paid a total of $50 million, with individual deals topping at $3.05 million. The WSJ reports 17 contracts are worth more than $1 million each.
At this point, the social media company is aiming for a "broad set of partners," says Justin Osofsky, to collect as much feedback as possible from a diverse range of audiences. Osofsky is Facebook's VP for global operations and media partnerships.
The Future Of Facebook: Live Streaming
Video content is already making sure Facebook's digital natives stay glued to the site: mobile users, for instance, have watched a total of 100 million hours of video just from their news feed.
The game is changing, however, with the addition of one simple but nifty feature: an integrated notification system. Each time a Facebook Live broadcaster goes on air, a notice is sent out to followers, and this offers viewers a sense of immediacy that most recorded footage do not have.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has high hopes in live streaming. Just last week, he inaugurated the Facebook Live Q&A, where 100,000 viewers joined the social media company's founder in the exchange.
The days of the text post could also be numbered — at least according to Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's VP for EMEA. She predicts the social networking site could become an avenue for "all-video" content, considering how the company is focusing its energy on Facebook Live and 360 Video.
After all, the market for digital video is worth $9.8 billion in the U.S. alone.
Tumblr To Rival Facebook Live
News of Facebook Live amping up its video content comes hot on the heels of Tumblr's own announcement: the microblogging site will now support live streaming as well.
Tumblr, which is well loved mostly for its hilarious user-generated GIFs, is teaming up with established video-sharing platforms, such as YouTube, to get live footage out immediately to netizens.
