Coming soon to a small screen near you: Facebook TV
From sports to comedy, reality and gaming, the social media network plans to spend up to US$3 million an episode as it follows other online giants such as Amazon and Netflix into content production
Facebook is starting production on high-quality television series and gaming shows to be broadcast on its platform.
The online platform is working on the project with a small group of partners and hopes to start putting out episodes of its forthcoming series by the end of the summer, says Nick Grudin, the vice-president for media partnerships.
“Our goal is to make Facebook a place where people can come together around video,” Grudin said. Facebook and its collaborators would “experiment with the kinds of shows you can build a community around – from sports to comedy to reality to gaming”, he said.
Facebook did not identify its content-production partners, but The Wall Street Journal said they include Hollywood studios and agencies representing actors and other creative talent from the film and television industries.
Netflix, Amazon and the online television platform Hulu – a joint venture by Disney, Comcast, 21st Century Fox and Time Warner – have thrown themselves into content production, as have YouTube and Apple, although on a more modest scale.