Facebook in talks for creation of its own original video content

15 Dec 2016

Facebook is mulling the possibility of buying its own video content from creative partners, including original scripted and unscripted shows, as also sports.

The aim was to ''kickstart'' an overall ''ecosystem of partner content,'' according to College Humor co-founder and recent Facebook team employee Ricky Van Veen who spoke to Recode.

According to commentators, this was not entirely new for Facebook, which had done deals with media organisations that provided revenue in exchange for using its Facebook Live video broadcasting platform, for instance. 

According to people familiar with Facebook's new talks, the social network seemed more interested in experimenting with different formats, but had not committed to big-ticket investments like Netflix and Amazon had made, for original shows and movies, Recode reported.

Van Veen said in a statement about his efforts, ''Earlier this year, we started rolling out the Video tab, a dedicated place for video on Facebook. Our goal is to kickstart an ecosystem of partner content for the tab, so we're exploring funding some seed video content, including original and licensed scripted, unscripted, and sports content, that takes advantage of mobile and the social interaction unique to Facebook. Our goal is to show people what is possible on the platform and learn as we continue to work with video partners around the world.''