Facebook Live was a major new venture for the social network last year, with the company providing support to many major publishers in order to encourage them to live stream to their audiences. With a reported $50 million having been dished out in the form of contracts to publishers and celebrities to broadcast on the site, it now looks like the company is back-pedaling and will instead be looking to fund premium video content in 2017.
According to publishers speaking to Recode, Facebook will not be renewing a large portion of its Facebook Live contracts, instead encouraging sites such as Buzzfeed to create lengthier and more highly produced content. Facebook reportedly reached out to 140 companies/individuals last year in order to help launch its live streaming service, though it appears that many will no longer be Facebook Live Partners this year. While this doesn’t exactly spell the end for major publishers making use of Facebook Live, it does mean that Facebook is pulling its support before it has revealed another secure way to monetize the live streaming feature, therefore ensuring that its heaviest hitters will substantially reduce their output.
Mark Zuckerberg is seemingly no longer as keen to make Facebook Live the social network’s biggest feature. (Image Credit: David Ramos / Getty Images)
The consensus among the publishers that have reportedly come forward to discuss Facebook’s plans is that producing Facebook Live videos hasn’t been cost-effective, with the social network paying out up to $3 million to larger outlets, but significantly smaller amounts to others. Considering that Facebook is now allegedly looking to fund more “professional” videos in the near future, it’s uncertain whether or not it’ll be investing more money into this venture. If not, Facebook could be fighting an uphill battle when it comes to securing high quality content.
Mark Zuckerberg reportedly still wants to keep Facebook Live as a strong focus for the site, but is relying on the general public to continue to utilize it in unique ways. Despite the large amount of money set aside by the company to encourage publishers and celebrities to jump on board, the feature’s biggest success stories have been created by regular Facebook users, such as the infamous ‘Chewbacca Mom‘ video that garnered over 160 million views last summer.
Ultimately, if these reports are to be believed then many publishers will be looking to shift their priorities in terms of social content. Facebook’s big emphasis upon Facebook Live last year caused many outlets to begin knuckling down in terms of planning a live streaming strategy, but with the cash seemingly drying up these strategies will have to altered. Facebook has already toyed with running ads in the middle of videos similar to YouTube, but thus far this system has yet to be rolled out.
