A little more than a year after it launched in the US, Facebook announced that it is taking its Watch video platform international in a press statement. The service will include latest videos from areas including entertainment, sports, and more in the user’s customized Facebook Watch feed. This will attract a massive audience giving Facebook access that’s on par with YouTube and Netflix.
Facebook Watchlist will contain a collection of recent videos from the Pages that the users follow, appearing on top of their Watch feed. The collection can be customized by following more Pages or removing Pages from the list. The user can also save videos from the News Feed on Facebook Watch to view later.
Facebook’s blog post states; around 50 million people in the US drain their time watching a minute’s worth of video per month and that the total time for watching videos has leaped 14 times since the start of this year.
Every month, more than 50 million people in the US come to watch videos for at least a minute in Watch – Fidji Simo, Head of Video, Facebook
The social media giant is working to bring new video experiences in Facebook Watch feed, such as Watch Parties, Premieres. The main aim is to encourage videos focusing on audience participation and make it easier to search for videos in the coming days. In addition, Facebook is also expanding its Ad Breaks program to allow more of its partners to make money from their videos.
Facebook has embraced the video medium for some time already, and it previously launched a Facebook video app for smart TVs and set-top boxes that let viewers watch any Facebook video on a big screen. The watchlist is added to the shortcut bar or the “More” bookmark on iOS and Android devices. It is also available on Apple TV, Samsung Smart TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Xbox One, and Oculus TV.
