For some time now, Facebook wants to stop being your favorite social network to become, as The Next Web advertises, your favorite multimedia content generator. Video is the protagonist of Facebook: we can broadcast live every minute of our lives; and when we see one on the wall, we can continue to watch video after video as if it were a 24-hour TV channel. We can even cast them to TV using Chromecast, in order to have a complete television experience. Not content with it, Facebook wants, in the manner of Netflix or Amazon or, more recently, YouTube, to create its own content for series and TV shows.
YouTube shakes, Facebook TV appears
But they don't want to create any content. They know very well which sector of the population is the one that consumes, in a majority way, this type of TV. Young people do not watch TV, or they watch very little: they make their own programming through videos stored on YouTube, content created by people like them, who talk about you to you, about topics that interest them. Why should they tune in to a TV channel when they have what they want to see on their own mobile?
That is why Facebook is interested if you are between 17 or 30 years old ... or millennial spirit (those who were born after 1980). They are going to take it so seriously that, in addition, they are not going to skimp on budget: it is estimated that each 30-minute episode of new series that Facebook will produce will be around 3 million dollars . To put this figure in perspective, it should be noted that this is the average budget for a series like Breaking Bad.
Prestige series on Facebook
Among the projects already confirmed, we can find the comedy 'Strangers' created by the artists
Mia Lidofsky and Celia Rowlson-Hall . The first three episodes of 'Strangers' could be seen at the last edition of the Sundance Independent Film Festival. It is a dramatic comedy in which a young woman, after a dramatic separation, must rent her room in order to generate extra income.
Another project that would enter the Facebook TV grid would be Loosely Exactly Nicole . After being canceled by MTV, Facebook will take over to continue recounting the adventures of the irreverent Nicole Byer. In addition, to remain true to its spirit of short and encapsulated material, Mark Zuckerberg's social network will work closely with Buzzfeed, ATTN and Refinery29, to produce 10-minute videos with exclusive content.
The first steps in relation to building a Facebook TV have already been taken: in India, and for a limited time, new tabs for 'Entertainment', 'Sports' and 'Animals' have been tested , all three categories, no doubt, with more followers within Facebook. It is also expected that the content will be free for all Facebook users since, in the manner of classic television, these programs will contain advertising spots. What we do not know is whether these ads will appear at the beginning of the program or interrupting the broadcast of the program.
At the moment nothing else is known about the new Facebook television . What we are clear about is that the times when Facebook was limited to being a social network have passed away.