Facebook Signs Deals With Media Companies, Celebrities for Facebook Live
June 21 2016 - 3:00PM
Dow Jones News
Facebook Inc. is paying an array of media companies and
celebrities to create videos for its live-streaming service and has
signed nearly 140 contracts totaling more than $50 million,
according to a document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The social network's partners vary widely. It includes
established media outfits like CNN and the New York Times; digital
publishers like Vox, Tastemade, Mashable and the Huffington Post;
and celebrities including Kevin Hart, Gordon Ramsay, Deepak Chopra
and NFL quarterback Russell Wilson.
The value of individual contracts varies widely, with 17 worth
more than $1 million, according to the document. The document isn't
a comprehensive accounting of all of Facebook's dealings with video
creators, but it shows the broad scope of the tech giant's efforts
to promote its nascent Facebook Live product.
"We wanted to invite a broad set of partners so we could get
feedback from a variety of different organizations about what works
and what doesn't," Justin Osofsky, Facebook's vice president of
global operations and media partnerships, said in a statement.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is betting big on live videos to
encourage the social network's 1.65 billion monthly users to keep
checking the service. The company still is determining how it will
monetize the video service through ads. Encouraging publishers to
produce a steady stream of high quality content is seen as a way to
help get the initiative off the ground.
Most publishers—traditional and digital—already are pouring
resources into online video to capture the attention of their
audiences and grab high advertising prices.
Facebook is a major driver of traffic to their properties.
Becoming one of its live-streaming partners in the early going will
give their videos enormous exposure, and could be lucrative once
selling ads in the platform is allowed.
The highest-paid publisher on the document reviewed by the
Journal is BuzzFeed, slated to receive $3.05 million for
broadcasting live between March 2016 and March 2017. Just behind
BuzzFeed is the New York Times, which is to receive $3.03 million
for a 12-month deal. CNN is third, with a $2.5 million
contract.
Write to Steven Perlberg at steven.perlberg@wsj.com and Deepa
Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 21, 2016 14:45 ET (18:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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